TA Telecom

TA Telecom is an African mobile technology and software company that builds mobile content platforms, analytic tools and brands products.

The startup was founded in 2000 by Egyptian techpreneur Amr Shady. TA Telecom expanded from its headquarters in Egypt to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Libya, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Morocco. It started as a mobile advertising provider and provided value-added services (VAS) a year later in 2001. Value-added services are phone services that users can receive in addition to their core voice calls (e.g., ring back tones, daily news summaries that are automatically sent to users by SMS, etc.).

The company moved into developing mobile applications and predictive analytics in 2012. TA Telecom grew between 2006 and 2013. It began with a small client base in Egypt but its products now reach around 10 million users in the Middle East and Africa (MENA). The company's employees increased from 15 in 2006 to 65 in 2015. Its revenue also grew by 560% from 2009 to 2014.

MegaKheir is the charity arm of TA Telecom. It is a mobile donation application whereby users send text messages via their mobile phones to donate EGP 5 per SMS. According to Diginomica, the platform raised USD 1.67M in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan 2014, for several charitable organizations that work on fighting cancer, hunger, poverty, heart disease and many other causes. The 57357 Children Cancer Hospital and the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation, which offer free health care in their respective fields, are two organizations currently raising funds through MegaKheir. In addition to fundraising for charities through the MegaKheir mobile App and text donations, the company also provides other mobile products and services for charitable initiatives. This includes developing a mobile app that assists the visually impaired in identifying paper money, and another Arabic-language app (Kalamy) that helps autistic children enhance their communication skills. In June 2016, two of TA Telecom's products, Mazady and MegaKheir, joined forces to create an SMS-based mobile charity auction called Mazady FelKheir (Auction for Good). The first charitable auction featured the tie of renowned heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, which was sold at around EGP 26,000 for the benefit of the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation that treats cardiac patients for free in Egypt.

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