Truecaller, the Swedish caller identification company, has opened its Business Chat platform to channel partners and enterprise solution providers globally, including African communications firm Sling Africa.
The expansion allows partners to offer Truecaller’s verified messaging service to enterprise clients as an alternative to traditional SMS, which the company says suffers from declining consumer trust due to spam and fraud. SMS remains the default business communication channel across much of Africa, but consumer trust in it has eroded as spam and fraud volumes have grown.
What is Business Chat?
Business Chat is Truecaller’s enterprise messaging product. It allows businesses to send verified, media-rich messages directly to consumers within the Truecaller app, rather than through standard SMS. Messages appear with the business’s verified identity, complete with logo and branding, and can include interactive elements like buttons and real-time engagement tracking.
The appeal for businesses is straightforward: reaching consumers on a platform they already use daily, with the added credibility of verification. For consumers, it offers a cleaner inbox than the typical SMS folder cluttered with promotional messages and potential scams.
A strategic reset
What the company’s latest announcement does not explicitly state is that this expansion represents a significant strategic pivot. In late March, Truecaller announced a shift away from an exclusive partnership model to a multi-partner approach. The previous exclusive partnership was terminated earlier this year, which will have a short-term negative impact on revenues until new partnerships have been scaled up.
Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala described the move as a necessary reset for the business messaging vertical, accepting short-term revenue pain to unlock long-term potential. The company’s journey in business messaging began in 2022 with a single partner. It has now signed multiple new partners who are already live on the platform.
Partners now onboard
In India, the world’s largest market for Truecaller, partners include Gupshup and OneXtel. Globally, Globe Teleservices, Cloudcom, and Sling Africa are driving adoption. Sling is a Nigerian company that partners with African businesses to reach customers through SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Email, and other messaging channels.
The inclusion of an African CPaaS provider is notable given Truecaller’s strong presence on the continent. Truecaller reached 100 million monthly active users in the Middle East and Africa region as of August 2025, representing 19% year-on-year growth. Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Algeria, Ghana, and Egypt are among the company’s largest markets in the region, with Truecaller used on 20 to 45% of connected smartphones.
Why this matters for African businesses
The Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market in Africa is growing rapidly. Nigeria has emerged as a trailblazer in CPaaS implementation across Africa and boasts a highly advanced regulatory framework. Major players including Twilio, Vonage, and regional providers like Africa’s Talking already compete for enterprise clients seeking to improve customer communications.
For African businesses, Truecaller Business Chat offers a potentially valuable distribution channel. With penetration rates of up to 45% on smartphones in key markets, the platform provides access to a large audience that already trusts the app for caller identification and spam blocking. The verified nature of Business Chat could help legitimate businesses stand out from the flood of promotional SMS that many African mobile users receive daily.
However, success will depend on execution. Partners like Sling Africa will need to convince enterprise clients that the additional reach and trust justify the cost compared to cheaper but less trusted SMS alternatives.
Regulatory considerations
Truecaller’s expansion in Africa comes as it navigates increased regulatory scrutiny over its data practices. Earlier in 2025, Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission launched an investigation into whether the company’s operations complied with the Nigeria Data Protection Act. The company’s crowd-sourced contact database, which powers its caller identification service, has drawn questions about data controller responsibilities under local laws.
How Truecaller manages these regulatory challenges while scaling its business messaging platform will be worth watching, particularly as Nigeria’s data protection framework continues to mature.
For now, the company is betting that verified business messaging can succeed where traditional SMS has lost consumer confidence. With half a billion global users and strong African growth, the platform certainly has the reach to make this bet interesting.
