Cape Town Startup Yazi Raises Funding To Turn WhatsApp Into Research Infrastructure For Africa

Cape Town-based research technology company Yazi has raised its first institutional funding round from 3 Capital Ventures (3CV), the early-stage venture firm that originated inside Allan Gray, as enterprises and development organisations increasingly adopt WhatsApp as a channel for customer and population research.

Founded in 2022 by Timothy Treagus (CEO) and Mzwandile Sotsaka (CTO), Yazi has built an AI-powered research platform that runs entirely through WhatsApp, enabling organisations to conduct surveys, qualitative interviews, diary studies and ongoing tracker research through the messaging platform their audiences already use.

Yazi is a WhatsApp-native, AI-first research platform that enables organisations to conduct surveys, AI-moderated interviews, diary studies, voice research, and panel studies at scale, all through WhatsApp.

, Yazi serves clients across Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.

With access to 1.8 million pre-qualified participants and the world’s leading WhatsApp research infrastructure, Yazi is pioneering an entirely new category in the $153 billion global insights industry

The premise is simple: to understand African consumers, you need to reach them where they already are.

WhatsApp has 94% penetration of South Africa’s internet population and is zero-rated on many African mobile networks. Traditional research tools built around email, desktop surveys and app downloads reach far fewer people across the continent.

“The research industry has a distribution problem,” said Treagus. “The tools were built for desktop-first, email-checking populations. Our clients needed to reach people on the channel they actually use. That’s WhatsApp.”

Yazi’s platform allows organisations to deploy AI-moderated research conversations at scale, asking follow-up questions and probing for deeper insights automatically. With access to 1.8 million pre-qualified research participants across African demographics and geographies, research that once took months to complete can now be conducted in days.

The company’s client portfolio includes Old Mutual, Pick’n Pay, Discovery, Capitec and Ipsos, alongside research agencies and international organisations across the UK, Europe and the United States. Yazi now operates in more than 15 countries, with over 65% of revenue earned in foreign currency.

Revenue grew 2.5x over the past financial year, reflecting growing enterprise demand for messaging-based research. Beyond the commercial opportunity, the platform is also creating a new participation economy in research across Africa. Participants earn R50 to R200 per study, with active panellists generating R500 to R2,000 per month via mobile money payouts.

Yazi is also developing automated voice interviews through the WhatsApp Call API, designed to enable participation from people with low literacy or limited typing ability.

“This platform was built in South Africa with the realities of greater Africa in mind,” said Sotsaka. “Mobile-first behaviour, multiple languages, and uneven connectivity are everyday realities here. Designing for those conditions has created a solution that is proving relevant well beyond our borders.”

The funding from 3 Capital Ventures will be used to expand Yazi’s research panel infrastructure across African markets, build out its voice interview technology, and accelerate international expansion.

Operating within a $153 billion global insights industry, Yazi is betting that the future of research will move from email surveys and online panels to messaging platforms already embedded in people’s daily lives.