We raised R34m in 2018 announces Cape Town fintech CloudOne.mobi [Updated]

Cape Town based fintech startup CloudOne.mobi today announced that it had raised R34-million in two funding rounds that closed at the end of last year.

The first deal was concluded in March last year, while the second deal was concluded in December, the startup’s COO Anna Groenewald told Ventureburn.

The startup, which was founded in 2014 by Dana Buys, has developed what it calls an advanced cloud-based point-of-sale solution, TallOrder for small businesses in the hospitality, retail and service segments.

The startup said in a statement today that the investors from the two rounds included Investec Private Capital, through its Emerging Companies mandate. Groenewald told Ventureburn that the other investor asked not to be named.

The startup said the investment will be used to help grow the business “more aggressively”.

Cape Town based startup CloudOne.mobi raised R34-million in two rounds last year to scale its TallOrder point-of-sale system

Buys has successfully started and sold a number of software businesses since launching his first business while studying at the University of Cape Town in the early 1980s.

Subsequently a hospitality business owner, among other interests, he became frustrated with poor levels of technology, particularly related to POS, which led him to found CloudOne.mobi.

Buys commented in the statement that there is a “massive” opportunity to deploy affordable Cloud and mobile technology in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“The cloud solutions model allows us to eliminate many of the headaches experienced by SME businesses which often lack strong IT skills.

“We develop the solution, keep the systems up to date, manage the databases and integration to external solutions, perform regular backups, and enforce security,” he said.

Groenewald said in the statement that TallOrder replaces “expensive” upfront license and installation fees with low monthly or annual fees, based on the number of devices in use.

“This opens the market to many businesses which previously could not afford nor cope with the older technology,” she said.

Groenewald subsequently told Ventureburn that the company employs 34 staff.

She said the startup has about 100 clients, most of which are SMEs, while the startup has secured some corporate clients through channel partners.

Read more: Investec out to fund fintech startups through global investment platform

Ventureburn writer Daniel Mpala also contributed to writing this article.

Editor’s note (9 February 2019): This article was updated when Ventureburn was able to speak to the startup’s COO Anna Groenewald. She said the startup has 34 employees and about 100 clients (mostly SMEs).

Groenewald also provided the dates when each of the investment rounds were made, and added that the second investor (alongside Investec) asked the startup not to be named.

Featured image: CloudOne Technologies founder and CEO Dana Buys (Supplied)