Truecaller Buys Payments App Chillr

Caller identification app Truecaller announced on Wednesday that it has acquired multi-bank payments app Chillr for an undisclosed amount. The Sweden-based company had in March last year entered into digital payments through Truecaller Pay. Co-founder and CSO Nami Zarringhalam said that Chillr’s acquisition is a “strategic investment into the payments space”.

Chillr’s founder Sony Joy said Chillr’s 45 employees including other co-founders will join Truecaller’s team. Joy will serve as the vice-president of Truecaller Pay.Backwater Technologies, which owns the Chillr brand and product, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Truecaller. Both Chillr and Truecaller have Sequoia Capital, a major venture capitalist firm, as one of their backers, although Zarringhalam said that it had nothing to do with the acquisition. Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder of Truecaller, said Truecaller is expecting to see a twofold growth in users in India and other markets.

“Since 2016,our revenues have grown from close to $8 million to close $14 million in 2017 and in year, we’re expecting to see continued growth.”

Zarringhalam said that 65% of Truecaller’s user base is in India. – Financial Express