Month: February 2012

SMSGH In The News: Forbes Africa Magazine, Published in South Africa — SMSGH, a leading mobile aggregation and bulk SMS messaging company based in Ghana has been named in the February 2012 edition of the prestigious Forbes Africa Magazine’s list of the ‘TOP 20 TECH START UP COMPANIES IN AFRICA’.

The Criteria for the selection included the following;

1. Each company had to be less than 10 years old
2. Each company had to show relevance in helping to overcome Africa’s problems in areas like communications and skills shortage
3. Each company had to have an online presence and demonstrate social media activity
4. Each company had to have a Pan-African presence and/or ownership.

SMSGH is listed in the 17th position in a ranking that includes companies such as MXit, Ushahidi, FloCash, PesaPal, and another Ghanaian start-up company, Dropifi. The full list is as follows;

1. MXit – Founded in 2003, MXit was one of the first Mobile Instant messaging services in the world and in Africa, and has a userbase of about 45m. (South Africa)
2. Yola – Founded in 2007, Yola is a simple website builder and hosting service, that allows anyone without any HTML skills to easily create websites. (South Africa)
3. Dropifi – Founded in 2011, Dropifi assists businesses in better responding to incoming messages via their website and also includes analytics for website owners. (Ghana)
4. Cobi Interactive – Founded in 2009, Cobi Interactive is a mobile software development company with clients. (South Africa)
5. FloCash – Founded in 2010, FloCash allows anyone with an email address and mobile number to send and receive money across Africa simply and easily. (UK)
6. Obami – Founded in 2009, Obami is a social network and learning management system for schools, teachers, and students. (South Africa)
7. Bandeka – Founded in 2011, Bandeka is an exclusive social network, for building relationships/dating. (Ghana and Nigeria)
8. Jobberman – Founded in 2009, Jobberman is West Africa’s most popular job and placement website. (Nigeria)
9. Motribe – Founded in 2011, Motribe is a mobile platform enabling users, brands, agencies, and publishers across the world to build and manage their own mobile social communities. (South Africa)
10. PesaPal – Founded in 2009, PesaPal is a payment platform that enables Kenyans to buy and sell on the Internet using M-Pesa, Zap and Credit Cards. (Kenya)
11. Synaq – Founded in 2004, Synaq provides messaging and security products built around open-source solutions. (South Africa)
12. Rupu – Founded in 2010, Rupu is a daily deals website modeled on group on. (Kenya)
13. BongoLive – Founded in 2010, BongoLive is a mobile and SMS services company. (Tanzania)
14. Skyrove – Founded in 2006, Skyrove is South Africa’s largest independent Wi-Fi hotspot network with over 600 Wi-Fi hotspots in South Africa. (South Africa)
15. Njorku – Founded in 2011, Njorku is a career and recruitment services platform focused on Africa. (Cameroon)
16. Ushahidi – Founded in 2007, Ushahidi is the only non-profit on this list, ushahidi develops software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. (Kenya)
17. SMSGH – Founded in 2005, SMSGH offers bulk SMS solutions, SMS Gateway solutions and mobile web solutions. (Ghana)
18. Hummba – Founded in 2011, Hummba is a social and travel networking website that lets you download free audio travel guides and share travel experiences directly from your mobile phone.
19. 10Layer – Founded in 2011, 10Layer is CMS system targeted specifically at newsrooms. (South Africa)
20. Sembuse – Founded in 2009, Sembuse is a mobile social network & instant messaging platform similar to Mxit. (South Africa)

About Forbes Africa Magazine: Forbes Africa Magazine was launched in September 2011 and is published by ABN Publishing of South Africa. Forbes is a leading international brand for news and rankings, and has built a strong reputation as a respected and informative source of business news around the world. Forbes Africa Magazine hopes to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit across the length and breadth of the continent with rigorously researched content that will be heeded and debated around the globe.