Exotel plans to acquire more startups that operate in the voice space
Indian cloud telephony company Exotel today announced that it has acquired Singapore’s voice-based social media app Croak.it! for an undisclosed sum.
This is the first acquisition for Bangalore-based Exotel, which is targetting to achieve a revenue of roughly US$30 million in the next two years. As a part of the deal, Croak.it!’s Co-founders Protik Roychowdhury and Srinivasa Teja will join Exotel.
“There was an obvious synergy between our long-term vision for Exotel and what Croak.it! has been doing, and technologically, there was a good overlap in the nature of the problem we were solving. Voice will continue to remain at the center of most business communications and there is a whole lot we can do to make this medium better,” said Shivkumar Ganesan, Exotel’s CEO. “Croak.it! is a step in that direction. We liked the team and the product at Croak.it!, and I think this is a great addition to Exotel,” he added.
Started in 2012 by IIT Kharagpur graduates, Croak.it! allows users to share their thoughts and emotions via voice, instead of having to type it out.
Fang Soong Chou, General Partner of Singapore-based Pix Vine Capital, which has invested in Croak.it! said, “Croak.it! had evolved over time to serve interesting niche markets such as language learning and education in South America, the US and Europe. It was a testament to the viability of voice-based messaging as a social media tool for businesses. We expect to see increasing traction for solutions adopting voice and audio-based tools to enhance customer service and were happy to have been part of Croak.it!’s efforts in pioneering this path.”
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Exotel’s customers include successful companies such as Ola Cabs, Groupon, RedBus, Zivame and CommonFloor. It plans to acquire more Indian startups that operate in the voice space.
Teja said, “One of the most important aspects of the technology of Croak.it! is its sound processing cluster. In conversation with the CTO of Exotel — Siddharth Ramesh, both of us realised how perfectly Croak.it!’s sound processing cluster fitted in with Exotel’s system as it already processes millions of voice samples via calls.”
“Exotel is building some really interesting features and is growing at the rate of knots,” said Roychowdhury. “A person’s voice is unique and personal. The idea when we started Croak.it! was to provide easily accessible voice solutions to consumers, enabling them to express themselves better. The long-term vision of Exotel is in sync with what we envisioned to be the future of communication – free, device-agnostic, voice communication from anywhere in the world,” he added.
Users can upload their favorite sounds, clip them to 30 secs and create a croak. One can also mix two or more croaks in the custom croak mixer, and create an entirely new sound. Users can share croaks with friends and family through all the popular social networks and also collect croaks in personalised collections.
Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures – the lead investors in Exotel – commented, “I’m happy to see that the Croak.it! team and Exotel team had a great match in philosophy and culture, and the team can add to Exotel’s ambitions to become a leader in this area.”
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