Truecaller, a caller ID confirmation app, has announced it’s plans to set up its Sub-Saharan headquarters in Nairobi. Truecaller claims to have 50 million users in Africa with 6 million users in Kenya alone. The app has apparently blocked and filtered out more than 4.4 million calls and 14 million spam SMS on a monthly basis.
The announcement came with the appointment of former Efritin MD, Zakaria Hersi, as the director of partnerships for Africa. He is also the founder of Orten.io, a Swedish based enterprise that empowers minority groups living in the country with networks and skills to participate in the Swedish tech sector.
Zakaria has a background of launching marketplaces around the world, and has helped the Swedish Investment firm Kinnevik launch Saltside in Nigeria where he was the Managing Director. He also had two stints working for Swedish based company Besedo, where he helped open offices in Colombia and Mauritius. During his period at Besedo he worked closely with some of the largest marketplaces (eBay, Match.com & OLX) in Europe and South America, and was responsible for post-merger integration of the company and French AI company IoSquare.