Former Vodafone Global CEO Arun Sarin has picked up a minority stake in phone directory app Truecaller for an undisclosed amount. This is Mr. Sarin’s third investment following taxi aggregator app Ola (July 2015) and music streaming company Saavn (September 2015).
Mr. Sarin will be joining Truecaller’s Advisory Board followed by a capital investment in the company, Truecaller said in a statement.
Scandinavia-based Truecaller’s other investors include Access Partners, Atomico, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Mr. Sarin said, said, “The notion of knowing who’s calling is a tremendous important piece of information for anyone with a phone. Having run a global mobile company, I know operators do not like having calls that are not being picked up in their network.”
Truecaller gives the consumer the right piece of information so they can complete the call, he said. “That is where I see a huge potential for Truecaller to be part of the bigger ecosystem. This should be a gift from every operator to their customers,” he said. India is the largest market for the Scandinavian company, where it has 100 million users. Globally, it has over 150 million users. —PTI
