Bangalore-based start-up Cooltok has been acquired by Kirusa, a US-based company that develops voice and social media mobile apps for emerging markets and is funded by Accel India, Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.
Bangalore-based start-up Cooltok has been acquired by Kirusa, a US-based company that develops voice and social media mobile apps for emerging markets and is funded by Accel India, Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.
The companies declined to disclose the deal value. Cooltok's six-member team has developed an app, launched two months ago and available on Google Play store, that has features similar to that of Whatsapp and Viber. It combines chatting and calling features.
Users can share pictures and videos. Multiple users can have an audio conference over it. The app has 5,000 registered users. "We developed it with far fewer people than any of our rivals, and it's the first such product out of India," said Sreenivas Karanam, Founder and CEO, Cooltok.
"The IP-based technologies that we developed for mobile apps, when combined with the product portfolio of Kirusa and the reach of its partner base across continents, will enable us to address a huge opportunity going forward," Karanam said.
Kirusa was founded by Inderpal Singh Mumick, together with colleagues from AT&T, Lucent, and Airtouch. The company says its patented voice SMS application is the most advanced offering in the market. "The technology developed by Cooltok's team, as well as their knowledge and experience, will be invaluable in delivering the third wave of messaging apps that look to combine the benefits of carrier services with the benefits of OTT (over-the-top) services," Mumick said.
OTT describes a scenario in which a telecom service provider delivers one or more of its services over the internet too. Kirusa works with over 35 telecom service providers.
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