[PRESS REVIEW] April 23rd, 2019|La Repubblica, Affari & Finanza– Andrea Frollà

More than 24 billion notifications, one billion voice calls managed and about 100 million dollars in revenues in 2018. Big customers like BNP Paribas, Intesa Sanpaolo, Enel, Amazon and Uber are in the portfolio of Kaleyra S.p.A. A financial partner with a vast experience in Silicon Valley now aims at large projects as well as expanding globally, especially in the United States. All these factors have contributed to what Kaleyra is today and established Kaleyra under the ticker symbol ‘KLR’ in the NYSE. After doubling the turnover and widening its borders over the last three years, the Italian group specialized in corporate mobile communication services (text messages, notifications, e-mails, instant messages, voice services, and chatbots) has indeed decided to go public on Wall Street to make another international leap.

“We are a communication company and hence are constantly aspiring to become a global leader in the CPaaS market. Our ambition is to play in the global major league and to do what we need to increase the reach on the American continent, because our main competitors hail from there”– explains Dario Calogero, founder and CEO of Kaleyra – at Affari & Finanza – “The operation is technically defined but remains subjected to the approval of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We hope to close the operation by the summer or at the latest immediately after.”

 Kaleyra in collaboration with GigCapital, a Californian company operating in the US as a special purpose acquisition company (better known to insiders with the acronym “Spac,”- special purpose acquisition company) is expected to provide its SMS, Voice and Fintech services to the Americas. The operation put together with the American partner will bring the current Kaleyra’s shareholders (85% is in the hands of Calogero and Simone Fubini, who supported the foundation of what was called Ubiquity in 1999) to hold about 33% of the new Kaleyra, with the rest of the capital held by the shareholders of GigCapital. Finally, the post-listing result will be a public company with GigCapital at 10-12% and a board of 7 members, divided equally between original partners and US partners excluding a seventh independent director. The group took the first steps in developing messaging services for banks, which still represent an important segment (55% of revenues also counting Fintech and Finance).

Currently, Kaleyra also serves many other realities: from the technological giants of e-commerce to small and medium-sized companies to giant enterprises. To give an idea of ​​the volumes, last year the group passed two billion notifications a month and a billion voice calls. Having established a significant presence in Europe (50% of turnover), Asia-Pacific and the Middle East (38%), Kaleyra aims to mark a significant presence in the American continent.

“We believe in executing excellence, integrity in action and customer promise. Our aim is to make communication around the world, as simple as possible, We are looking forward to accelerating investments in products and technology and growth by external lines,” says Calogero, who will hold the position of chief executive officer .”Furthermore, we have behind us the expertise of GigCapital, whose founder boasts 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley,” he adds, referring to Avi Katz, an Israeli investor with four IPOs and several M&A operations in the technological field.

After the two acquisitions closed between 2016 and 2018 respectively (Solutions Infini in India and Hook Mobile in the USA), Kaleyra is back in action, looking at several companies globally, some of which are identified by GigCapital. Kaleyra plans to end 2019 with revenues of 126 million dollars, driven by significant growth in the US (which should cover 20% of the turnover) and technological advancements in various communication channels.

“We are investing in artificial intelligence, in particular on machines and deep learning, the most sought after futuristic technologies. In this context, and especially after the recent developments in Social media like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp”– concludes Calogero – “I think that chatbots will become relevant tools”.

SOURCE: 451 MARKET MONITOR: The numbers:

2 billion mobile notifications managed per month by Kaleyra with 1 billion calls and 200 employees. The group has 12 offices in the world and an operational reach to around 190+ countries.

To find out more, read the Italian Article on La Repubblica, Affari & Finanza