Integrated Customer Experience Management solution for businesses in Africa, Ajua has announced the acquisition of Kenya-based WayaWaya for an undisclosed fee.
The acquisition of WayaWaya, an Artificial Intelligence [AI] and Machine Learning [ML] known for its innovative Janja platform will allow Ajua to strengthen its borderless banking and payments solution across apps and social media platforms in the continent.
Meanwhile, WayaWaya founder and lead Janja product builder, Teddy Ogallo has joined Ajua as VP of Product APIs and Integrations.
According to Ajua Founder and CEO, Kenfield Griffith, the acquisition of WayaWaya is an important milestone for Ajua as the company makes a significant leap in ensuring the customer experience journey for businesses across the continent is seamless.
He said integrating WayaWaya’s technology significantly complements Ajua’s product suite and gives the company the ability to automate its clients’ businesses and grow their revenues, which is an extremely powerful proposition for customers of all sizes, across Africa.
“The additional reach this acquisition brings allows Ajua to scale significantly within the SME vertical, as we provide our customers today, and in the future, the tools they need to grow in Africa and beyond. We continue to be bullish on the point that customer experience and customer engagement are the engines for growth for businesses across the continent and they are disciplines that are critical factors in driving productivity and revenue growth,” he noted.
WayaWaya currently helps both individuals and businesses with intelligent messaging, across a number of social platforms, including Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Telegram, and others, and allows its users to automate customer support and make cross-border payments. As well as its vast reach with social platforms, WayaWaya is also integrated with global and African financial leaders including Mpesa, Airtel Money, Bankserv, First Data, Interswitch, Stripe, Flutterwave, Visa and MasterCard.
Launched in 2012, Ajua was built to solve the customer experience gap for businesses on the continent to drive business growth. Ajua combines technology with the customer experience and has built a number of innovative products that deliver real-time customer feedback at the point of service, for small and large businesses across Africa, with the goal to digitalize and power growth for over 45 million SMEs. Current Ajua infrastructure partners and clients include GoodLife Pharmacy, Standard Chartered, FBNQuest, Safaricom, Total, Coca-Cola and Java House.
The acquisition of WayaWaya comes just one month after Ajua announced its partnership with Nigeria’s MTN for MTN EnGauge, an agile application that offers innovative customer management solutions. The platform enables businesses to access to digital payments using a unique USSD code, CRM tools, customer feedback channels, debt management and tracking, business and product promotions through mobile and social media channels. Through its new product roll-out with MTN, Ajua is generating more data for its thousands of users, much of which can now be better automated and monetized through the products and services WayaWaya has built, including cross-border digital transfers, payments services and intelligent finance bots.
The SME market in Nigeria alone is valued at $220 billion annually and projections reveal that businesses with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) have bolstered their productivity by 40 percent. Ajua, the leader in the technology-powered customer experience market for the continent, uses data and analytics to connect companies with their customers in real-time, helping businesses to better understand the nature of their customers and subsequently increase sales through smarter experiences.
