PRESS RELEASE

Kirusa partners with Etisalat Nigeria

New Providence, NJ and Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, 09 October 2014: Kirusa, the leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps in emerging markets, announced today the launch of its popular services, Celeb Connect and Sports Connect, with Etisalat Nigeria, a leading telecom operator in Nigeria. With these services, Etisalat Nigeria customers can now stay connected with their favorite celebs and also receive exclusive sports voice bytes on their mobile phones and stay abreast with the latest news from the soccer world. The services can be accessed on both smartphones and feature phones.

Celeb Connect bridges celebrities and fans, adding voice to their interactions. By providing multiple modes of interactions, Celeb Connect augments the quality of conversations between celebrities and their fans.

From Celeb-to-fans and fans-to-Celeb, Celeb Connect provides a seamless flow of messages, and creation of micro blogs. Using the unique voice micro blogging feature of Celeb Connect, celebrities voice their emotions, allowing their fans to hear them, a better option than just reading their text messages on a blog or media outlet. These messages, called Vobolos, are delivered instantly to subscribing fans, creating a “Voice Twitter” like experience. Participating stars include Peter Okoye, Holy Mallam, Sasha P and many more.

Through Sports Connect, subscribers can receive daily updates such as team news, pre and post-match analysis, and quotes of team managers as well as players. With updates about clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona FC, Arsenal, and Chelsea, as well as national teams such as the Ghanaian Black Stars and Nigerian Super Eagles, available on Sports Connect, subscribers can receive their soccer bulletins in English and French languages.

Commenting on the launch, Head of Digital Media at Etisalat Nigeria, Adia Sowho added, “We are excited to partner with Kirusa for Celeb and Sports Connect services. These popular services attract customers’ attention and connect them to their favorite stars. While Celeb Connect establishes a more personal bond between celebs and fans, Sports Connect offers exclusive soccer news from popular soccer clubs and coaches in a new way, using voice updates and analysis”.

Taranjit Singh Batra, Vice President-Sales, Kirusa, added, “While voice chatting with a celebrity used to be a dream earlier, we are making it a reality for Etisalat Nigeria subscribers with Celeb Connect. With Sports Connect, soccer fans will stay updated on all the football action, from Spanish League to Premier League, and all other soccer tournaments around the world, right from their mobile phones”.

About Etisalat Nigeria

In just 5 years of operations, Etisalat Nigeria has become a major industry player with a growing subscriber base of 19 million in a highly competitive market. Its portfolio of voice and data-centric products include – easy starter, easycliq, easybusiness, and easyblaze; all tailor-made to meet the needs of its customers.

Etisalat Nigeria is one of the 19 operations of the Etisalat Group that spans across Africa, Middle East and Asia serving over 182 million subscribers; and it is committed to delivering innovative and quality services to its growing subscribers.

For more information visit: www.etisalat.com.ng

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®, Celeb Connect™ and Sports Connect™ apps, which are offered in partnership with more than thirty-five mobile carriers in Africa, India, LatAm, and 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. 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 registered trademark of Kirusa, Inc

For more information, visit: www.kirusa.com

For further inquiries, please contact

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

For Etisalat Nigeria

Chineze Amanfo
Manager, Public Relations
E-mail: pr@etisalat.com.ng