Every1Mobile (E1M), which specialises in building mass audiences via mobile in sub-Saharan Africa, has raised US$1.7mn in investment
The investment came from so-called 'angel investors', individuals who provide capital for start-up or emerging businesses often in exchange for convertible debt or part ownership.
Every1Mobile, which was founded in 2010, uses mobile-enabled social networks to transform how organisations engage with young people aged 15-35 in sub-Saharan Africa and other emerging markets.
E1M runs nine mobile sites covering education, health, jobs and entertainment and aims to help young people in emerging markets enter the formal economy.
E1M currently receives over three million monthly visits to its sites and serves 25mn pages every month. Users are equally split between males and females across South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
“Mobile social networks in Africa allow us to engage with a vast, previously inaccessible audience of young people,” said Algy Williams, CEO of Every1Mobile.
“The mobile phone has the potential to revolutionise access in emerging markets to information services across learning, health, agriculture, financial literacy, business support and sustainable livelihoods.”
By building large mobile-based communities of highly motivated and educated young people, E1M is becoming the gate-keeper to an audience that is in highly sought after by corporations, governments, foundations and NGOs.
“In a global aid and development market worth US$140bn per annum, mobile provides a new and unique channel for rapid, accurate and measurable delivery of aid and development related products and services direct to the individual,” said Williams. “Fast moving and entrepreneurial companies are well placed to deliver measurable social impact at unprecedented scale.”
The company’s earns its revenues from advertising, sponsorship, market research, and development and social impact services.
E1M has offices in Cape Town, South Africa and Brighton, UK, and all of its content and services are optimised for feature phones, which is essential to operate at scale in the region. Virtually all E1M content is free to the user.
