• Tim Treagus founded Yazi in 2023 to conduct surveys and market research directly through WhatsApp.

• The platform allows organizations to design questionnaires online and collect responses within WhatsApp conversations, then analyze data via a web dashboard.

• Treagus also co-founded beach pillow brand Billo and previously worked in consulting and product management in South Africa’s innovation ecosystem.

Tim Treagus is a South African entrepreneur and finance graduate. He founded Yazi, a survey and market research platform that enables users to ask questions directly on WhatsApp and analyze responses through a clear and user-friendly web interface.

Founded in 2023, Yazi helps companies, agencies and researchers better understand their customers, markets and beneficiaries by using WhatsApp as the main data collection channel. Instead of sending questionnaires by email or through online forms, organizations deliver questions within a WhatsApp conversation that resembles an ordinary chat. Participants therefore respond within an application they already use daily.

The platform supports multiple research formats. Organizations can deploy quantitative questions, collect in-depth qualitative feedback, run longitudinal diary studies, and test ideas or concepts. Yazi aims to accelerate data collection, increase proximity to respondents and improve the reliability of insights gathered from real-world contexts.

Research teams first design their questionnaires in Yazi’s online interface, using a process similar to traditional form-building tools. Once teams finalize the survey, they distribute it via WhatsApp. Targeted participants receive an invitation, navigate through the questions, enter or select their responses directly in the chat, and pause or resume the survey when needed.

On the analytics side, teams access results through an interactive dashboard that displays charts, statistics and raw data exports alongside respondent profiles. Yazi also provides a tracking view that shows who completed the survey, who remains in progress and who has not started, enabling real-time monitoring and structured follow-ups.

In parallel, Tim Treagus co-founded Billo, a beach pillow brand launched in 2018. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, and he completed a Udacity program in artificial intelligence product management in 2020.

He began his professional career in 2018 as a consultant at Phaphama SEDI, a South African organization that supports leadership, entrepreneurship and small business development. He then served as product manager at The Delta from 2020 to 2022, where he contributed to an ecosystem focused on innovation and venture creation.

Melchior Koba