Clicks2Customers - Company History

Clicks2Customers was founded in 2003 by a pioneer in Internet marketing, Vinny Lingham. The World Wide Web was transforming business, communications, information gathering, media… and marketing. This was a time of massive change in the Internet, where the mind-blowing growth in the number of pages on the Web meant that the search engine became the place most people started browsing – and increasingly they were looking for products and services from the burgeoning number of companies selling online.

This entrepreneur saw a need for a better, more accurate and more reliable way to bring the people searching for something together with the companies that could provide it for them. Clicks2Customers is the result of our experts' passion for the Web, and savvy in online marketing.

Originally working in the Affiliate Marketing area, Clicks2Customers rapidly grew, along with the size and profile of its clients. By 2004 Clicks2Customers was recognized as one of the leading affiliate companies in the UK market specializing in the travel sector. In recognition of its performance Clicks2Customers was awarded the Commission Junction Horizon Award for Innovation.

Vinny Lingham realized that to grow the business into a global player, he would need access to both capital and experience, and thus in 2006 brought TEIM Ventures, a South African based venture capital company, and Southern Cross Capital on board. Southern Cross Capital manages the private equity interests of the Oppenheimer family. In 2006 Clicks2Customers won the 2006 Minister's Award for Overall Excellence (Small/Medium Enterprises). The Ministers Award is South Africa's foremost business excellence awards programme.

This was followed by a partial acquisition by HBD early 2007. HBD is a South African company founded by billionaire technology maverick Mark Shuttleworth. HBD discovers and invests in early stage businesses which have developed viable new products. Their mission is to work closely with these entrepreneurs to ensure that they realize their full commercial potential and achieve global success. HBD invested R25m (c. $4m) to fund both organic & acquisitive growth.

In 2007 Clicks2Customers was yet again recognized for its excellence by receiving a nomination for Best New Affiliate at the LinkShare Golden Link Awards.

Through Clicks2Customers' reputation as a super-affiliate, more and more large global brands approached it directly to manage their Paid Search initiatives. Today, Clicks2Customers has clients in five countries with offices and representation in four of these. Its clients include eight seven Top 500 online retailers in the USA, three Top Ten travel brands in the UK, one of the Top Three travel portals as well as one of the Top Three retail brands in the Australasian market, and leading travel and financial services brands in Southern Africa.