PRESS RELEASE

New Providence, NJ and Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday, November 18, 2015: AfricaCom, Cape Town: Leading Telecommunications Service Provider, Airtel Nigeria, has partnered with Kirusa, a foremost provider of voice messaging and social media solutions, to launch a voice messaging service aimed at enhancing communication among Nigerians.

The service, which is called InstaVoice, provides flexible communication features for customers; further enabling them to send and receive voice messages seamlessly in Nigeria, and across the world. Using this service, an Airtel customer can record a voice message that will be forwarded and listened to by the recipient.

To send an InstaVoice message to a friend, users can just dial ‘star’ followed by the recipient’s number to record and send the message. They can also leave a message if a call goes unanswered or cannot be completed, or use the InstaVoice app on smartphones, press and hold the record button in the app to record and send a message, regardless of whether the recipient has the app or not.

The voice or text message is then delivered to smartphone users with the InstaVoice app, so they can view the messages as part of their chat history with their friends. Those who do not have the app will get the voice message with an embedded number. They will need to click on the number to listen and reply to the message.

Speaking about the product, Ahmed Mokhles, Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, expressed delight at the partnership with Kirusa. He explained that, “InstaVoice gives the power of voice messaging to all our customers, regardless of the device they use. It enables our customers to stay connected and not miss any calls even when their phones are switched off. This is a huge advantage especially for emerging markets, and it is one of the reasons we decided to partner with Kirusa.”

In the same vein, Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO of Kirusa, noted that, “We are delighted to launch InstaVoice in partnership with Airtel Nigeria. InstaVoice is an extraordinary product that was developed for the sole purpose of seamlessly connecting people across the world.”

InstaVoice messages can be delivered to users anywhere in the world and to feature phone users in 14 countries, including 10 countries in Africa through the Kirusa Cloud. Also, Airtel Smartphone users can benefit from the data features of the InstaVoice app, which include free texting, voicing, pictures, missed calls, and voicemail.

The InstaVoice smartphone app allows users to get missed calls and voicemails in a beautiful chat like user interface. Users can respond to missed calls and voicemails with a text or voice message, even if the other party does not have the app. Moreover, it is the only app that supports getting missed calls and voicemails to multiple phone numbers within a single app. With its patent-pending User Interface and audio processing technology, it offers the best voicing experience available anywhere.

Smartphone users can download InstaVoice app from Google Play, Apple App Store, or Windows Store for free.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally, in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 335 million customers across its operations at the end of August 2015. To know more, please visit, http://www.airtel.com

About Kirusa

Kirusa is the leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps that enable mobile subscribers to “Have a Voice!” and share their stories with their family and friends across the globe. Kirusa’s solutions include InstaVoice®, InstaVoice Celeb™ and InstaVoice Sports™ apps, which are offered in partnership with more than thirty-five mobile carriers in Africa, India, LatAm, and the Middle East, as well as via the app stores, and are used monthly by over 80 million mobile users in four continents. Kirusa solutions are built on its patented technology and its highly reliable and scalable multimodal and cloud platforms, which process over one billion events a month. Kirusa has been recognized as one of top 20 most promising technology companies by Silicon India, and one of top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. The InstaVoice app won first prize at NJTC Mobile Apps Forum. Informa selected InstaVoice as a finalist for the Best App in Africa. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has offices in four continents. InstaVoice is a US registered trademarks of Kirusa, Inc. For more information, visit: http://www.kirusa.com

For further inquiries, please contact

For Kirusa

Alchemy Corporate Communications 
Anju Makin
India Tel: +91-9810170135
USA Tel: +1-973-536-2652
E-mail： anju_makin@alchemycc.com

For Airtel Nigeria

Emeka Oparah
Director, Corporate Communications & CSR
E-mail: emeka.oparah@ng.airtel.com
Tel: +234-8021921120