SA startup Howler secures second round of funding [Updated]

UPDATE (10 February): This article has been updated to reflect that one of the three investors, Techstars, contributed $150 000 in Howler’s latest round.

Event ticketing and cashless platform Howler has secured a second round of investment from three companies, namely Techstars, Platform Investment Partners Growth (Platform Growth) and Johannesburg based software development house Platform45.

The announcement was made by SA tech publication ITWeb in an article last Thursday (6 February).

While the total amount in funding was not disclosed, Techstars CEO Yossi Hasson told Ventureburn today that Techstars’ contribution was $150 000.

The latest round of funding follows a seed investment that the company received in 2017, according to Crunchbase data. According to Crunchbase, Techstars, Techstars managing director Yossi Hasson and Barclays Accelerator took part in the seed round.

Hasson told Ventureburn today that those startups that participated in the Barclays Accelerator were each given $20 000 and access to mentors.

SA startup Howler has netted further funding from Techstars, as well as two other investors

ITWeb reported in the same article that the company, which has a ticketing and cashless technology platform for events, has processed over R1.5-billion worth of transactions to date, from “millions of tickets across thousands of events”.

The company, which was founded in 2014 by Shai Evian (pictured above) and Steve Cuzen, has grown from 25 employees in 2017, to 70 now, Evian, who is also the company’s CEO, is quoted as saying.

The publication said the funding will be used to grow the company’s market share in Sub-Saharan Africa, and help it to expand to Europe and Asia Pacific countries.

Featured image: Howler CEO Shai Evian (Facebook)