You know the drill. You buy something online.
A few days later, an email arrives asking you to ‘rate your experience’ from one to five.
You click “4”, ignore the comment box, and move on.
The company logs your score alongside thousands of others and concludes that customers are satisfied.
They aren’t.
They just couldn’t be bothered.
This is the fundamental flaw in traditional market research.
NPS scores reduce complex experiences to simplistic numbers, comment boxes are rarely completed, and the people who do respond are seldom representative of the wider population.
Cape Town-born startup Yazi (built entirely on WhatsApp) has raised its first institutional funding round led by 3 Capital Ventures (3CV), the early-stage venture firm spun out of Allan Gray.
The investment reflects two major shifts shaping the global insights industry: the rapid rise of AI-powered research and the fact that the next billion consumers are messaging-first.
A Meaningful Conversation, Not Just a Survey
Founded in 2022 by CEO Timothy Treagus and CTO Mzwandile Sotsaka, Yazi replaces traditional surveys with AI-led conversations on WhatsApp.
Instead of gathering shallow responses from thousands of forms, Yazi can run hundreds of simultaneous in-depth interviews through WhatsApp.
The system automatically analyses conversations, identifies themes, and delivers presentation-ready insights.
“When you receive a WhatsApp from Yazi, it feels like you’re chatting,” says Treagus.
“Our AI asks questions, follows up based on your answers, and digs deeper the way a real researcher would.”
Built Local; Made for Global
The traditional research industry was designed for email users sitting at a desktop; this represents only a fraction of the global population. Yazi was built for everyone else.
WhatsApp has 3.2 billion users globally and 94% penetration among internet users in South Africa.
Across Africa, it is the dominant digital channel and often zero-rated by mobile networks.
“We’re not asking people to download an app or sit at a laptop,” said Sotsaka.
“We meet them where they already are.”
Through its 1.8 million-person research panel, Yazi enables organisations to gather insights on everything from product feedback to policy research, all via WhatsApp.
Participants are compensated, earning up to R200 per study, creating meaningful income in communities where formal employment can be scarce.
What Comes Next
Yazi’s growth has been rapid, with revenue increasing 2.5x over the past financial year as the company expanded operations across more than 15 countries and delivered over 100 research projects.
International demand is also accelerating, with over 65% of revenue now generated in foreign currency as research agencies across the UK, Europe and the US adopt the platform.
The new funding will support three priorities:
- Expanding Yazi’s proprietary research panel across African markets
- Launching voice-based interviews through the WhatsApp Call API, enabling research participation for low-literacy users
- Accelerating expansion into the UK and European markets
Operating within a $153 billion global insights industry, Yazi believes the future of research will be conversational, mobile, and AI-driven.
And it might just start with a WhatsApp message instead of a survey form.
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