If true, it’s Twitter’s 1st acquisition in India.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Twitter may have acquired its first startup in India, ZipDial, going by a report in TechCrunch.
ZipDial, a Bangalore-based company, offers mobile marketing solutions to global brands. According to their website, ZipDial’s intelligence platform drives solutions such as couponing, friend referrals, and more. Clients include Disney, Pepsi, P&G, and over five hundred others.
TechCrunch reported the deal is already closed with a sum of $30 to $40 million being touted as the final value. If the deal goes through or has been finalized, ZipDial will/has become Twitter’s first acquisition in India. There were previously rumors Twitter was in talks to acquire another India-based startup, Frrole, a company that analyzes Tweets to garner insights for media, consumer, and entertainment verticals. However, a deal never came to fruition.
As more Indian consumers flock to the internet, the international marketing worth of its sizable population is steadily increasing. As previously reported by The American Bazaar, India is set to become the second largest smartphone market by 2016, and many titans of technology are starting to take notice.
ZipDial had previously teamed up with Twitter to offer tweets from Indian celebrities such as Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan when users dialed a preset number and hung up.
ZipDial had also partnered with Facebook to offer brand promotions through its Facebook Click2Call ad service. It created interactive, mobile ads featuring buttons enabled users to request brand information via voice or text messages.
ZipDial was co-founded in 2010 by Stanford-educated, U.S. transplant Valerie Wagoner (CEO), Amiya Pathak (COO, has also worked and studied across the United States), and Sanjay Swamy (chairman, active investor in other startups). Investors include Jungle Ventures, 500 Startups, Times Internet, and Mumbai Angels.