ForgetMeNot Africa was created in 2009, when ForgetMeNot Software joined forces with investment company Lonzim Plc to create ForgetMeNot Africa, a subsidiary that's solely focused on providing unified messaging and financial services in Africa, and began deploying its technology on the continent that same year, in Lesotho. Lonzim Plc owns 51% of ForgetMeNot Africa and ForgetMeNot Software own the remainder of the company. ForgetMeNot Africa works with telecommunication companies to offer unified messaging services, such as email and online chat via standard mobile phones. It sees the market opportunity as the 3.5 billion mobile subscribers in the developing world who could use any SMS capable mobile phone to send email and chat online without needing to upgrade or download any new applications onto their device. Ben Rhodes. Products & Technology ForgetMeNot Africa's core product is eTXT which runs on the Message Optimiser platform allowing telecommunication companies, enterprises and social networks to offer their users two way interaction on social media sites, as well as by email, instant messaging (IM) via SMS from and to any mobile phone regardless of its make or model. ForgetMeNot Africa's Message Optimiser platform was awarded 'Best Innovation in a Mobile First Market' at the Meffys in July 2011, and won the 'Innovation in Messaging' award at the 160 Characters Mobile Messaging awards in June 2011. African Mobile Network Operators using ForgetMeNot Africa’s eTXTing platform enable their subscribers to send and receive eTXT messages as an SMS, an email or online chat. eTXT bridges the gap between PCs and mobile orientated messaging without ever needing to have a PC or Internet access. This is particularly suitable for developing nations where PC and Internet access percentages average in the low single digits. In February 2011 ForgetMeNot Africa added the Facebook functionality to its Message Optimiser platform. This enabled any mobile phone subscriber to an operator deploying the Message Optimiser technology to access Facebook Chat, update their profiles, ‘like’ their friends’ statuses and comment on threads via SMS. Deployments In September 2009 ForgetMeNot Africa helped Econet Telecom Lesotho to more than double the population's access. Lesotho’s highly literate population struggles to access vital information, such as healthcare, travel and educational resources as according to the International Telecommunication Union only 3.4 per cent of the population use the Internet. Expanding the country’s access to email via entry level, low end mobile phones improves access to information, communications with friends