Voys Wins Prestigious Dutch Industry Award 

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Alex Sudheim

20 Apr 2022 Clock 3 min

Originally published on ITWeb


Voys co-founder Mark Vletter and a herd of Gazellen

Global Leadership

For the tenth year running Voys has taken home a coveted FD Gazellen trophy, the pre-eminent Dutch award for the country’s fastest-growing companies. This is an emphatic endorsement of the company’s position at the forefront of the VoIP industry.

The auspicious annual award is the initiative of Het Financieele Dagblad, the leading Dutch financial daily and a prominent figure in European business, economics and politics. The paper’s journalists formed part of the historic international operation that investigated and exposed the Panama Papers.  

We Have Lift-Off

Founded in Groningen, Holland, in 2006 by Mark Vletter, Voys started life as a spin-off of TNO, the leading organisation for applied scientific research in the Netherlands. It was here the product that would radically change the telecom world – telephony in the cloud – was born.

In 2013, Dutch entrepreneur Sebastiaan van Dorssen identified the universal appeal of VoIP technology and expanded Voys to South Africa. Here he set about pioneering cloud telephony in the republic by adapting and implementing the award-winning system developed in the Netherlands to meet the needs of the South African market. 

Onwards and Upwards

Quickly growing into a driving force in the cloud-based telephony market in both Europe – the company also operates in Belgium and Germany – and South Africa, Voys has evolved into a force to be reckoned with. The Holacracy-powered company doesn’t stand still for a second, continuously innovating in terms of its product and its industry-leading service and support

These developments, advances and breakthroughs are all in service of the company’s mission, which is to build the tools and voice communication services that enhance business capacity through exceptional customer communications. 

Further recognising that internet connectivity is the sine qua non of doing business in the 21st Century, Voys is driven by the purpose of giving people an equal voice. This purpose is manifested in the company’s own NGO 48percent.org which works to realise the vision of ‘equal access to connectivity’. 

To this end, 48percent.org partners with like-minded civic organisations in every conceivable corner of the planet to ensure that as few people as possible are left behind by the inexorable tide of progress.  

Bring on the Bling

Voys was barely out of diapers when it won its first FD Gazellen in 2012. Scooping its tenth trophy on the trot in 2022 is a resounding affirmation of the company’s continuous growth and steadfast staying power. 

Breaking out the bubbly at the 2022 do was way overdue: for the past few years the auspicious industry celebration went virtual due to Covid but, on this occasion, Mark Vletter, together with Voys colleague Ben Hoetmer, was able to accept the award in person at a real, live party. Remember those?!

Leaps and Bounds

Maintaining its continuous forward momentum, Voys in 2022 has already launched a game-changing new product and radically updated app in order to allow every company in South Africa to run a full-featured, cloud-based business phone product of the kind otherwise only accessible to large corporations.  

Aptly named Freedom Unlimited, the Voys offering is unparalleled in the simplicity, flexibility, freedom and control the platform allows the user. This is one of the many reasons that Voys has been a Deloitte Technology Fast50 company in Holland for 4 years in a row.


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