The crowd sourced directory service Truecaller announced on Friday that it has raised $18.8 million in funding from an investor group led by Indian arm of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. It also announced global integration of the service with business review site Yelp Inc.
The current round of fundraising also includes funding from existing investors Open Ocean, Truecaller Chairman Stefan Lennhammer, and an unnamed private investor, a press release from the Stockholm-based company stated.
India, where this reverse look-up service was launched three years ago, accounts for over 50 per cent of Truecaller’s global 45 million user base. India also represents a high growth market, accounting for over half of the around one million global weekly additions to the mobile application service. The service is available as an application for smartphones and is accessible via a website.
Yelp integration The company announced an integration of Yelp API data as part of plans to expand its product features on the Android and iOS platforms. The Yelp integration will allow users to identify local, national, and international businesses, and view the Yelp rating, a company release from Truecaller stated.
“The integration takes Truecaller’s own search engine to find people and identify numbers, and combines it with Yelp’s crowdsourced business ratings to create one place for genuine and accurate information for the world to use,” the release added.
In December, Truecaller announced a partnership with microblogging site Twitter. allowing users to connect with a person’s Twitter account through the app.
Board member Truecaller’s release stated that Shailesh Lakhani, Sequoia Capital, has joined the Truecaller board. The release quoted him as saying that the service’s growth in high growth smartphone markets is because it helps make users more efficient in avoiding spam calls and know who is calling them. “We are excited to help support the company’s growing user community,” he said.
