A typical “started out of my parents garage” story – Sam Hutchinson and Josh Adler launched Everlytic during University. Originally the company was a generic web development outfit, which evolved into Everlytic after they spotted the need for a local web-based platform for bulk emailing and SMS product in the SA market.
They have now launched their product in a number of South American and African countries and are competing with larger, more mature international players. Everlytic is already showing strong evidence of growth since investment, with a R6m increase in sales expected by February 2014, indicating the strong growth potential of this business and hence the large job creation impact it is likely to have.
Everlytic approached the Vumela Fund for access to growth finance. The finance provided will enable them to expand locally and internationally both in existing and new markets, namely:
- Expand the sales team in South Africa to reach more businesses nationally:
- Increase sales force in Johannesburg
- Increase sales force in Cape Town
- Open small office and hire sales team in Durban
- Grow existing international markets:
- Setup a branch in Argentina to formalise presence and build local sales team
- Open office in Kenya and employ permanent sales person
- Enter new international markets:
- Enter Chile and Brazil in South America
- Enter Ghana and Nigeria in Africa
Furthermore, Edge Growth will be running a growth strategy workshop to help the team:
- Understand whether to target large business versus online customers and how the product strategy should be shaped as a result
- Develop a strategy for international expansion and lead indicators to determine whether to accelerate or pull out of any particular market.
