Bangalore-based cloud telephony startup Exotel Techcom Pvt Ltd, has acquired Singapore's voice-based social media startup Croak.it! This is the first acquisition for Bengaluru-based Exotel, which is targeting to achieve a revenue of about, Rs 185 crore in next two years. Exotel chief executive Shivakumar Ganesan confirmed the deal, but declined to disclose the purchase price and terms of deal.
As per the deal, Croak.it's founders Protik Roychowdhury and Srinivasa Teja will join the board of the company.
"We liked the team and the product at Croak.it," said Ganesan, CEO, Exotel. "There was a good overlap in the nature of the problem we were solving. Voice will continue to remain at the centre of most business communications."
Exotel replaces expensive communication hardware system with affordable cloud-based telephony solutions for customers like taxi aggregator Olacabs, bus ticketing site redBus and online lingerie retailer Zivame. The acquisition will help it improve its services.
Founded in 2012 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Protik Roychowdhury and Srinivasa Teja, Croak.it! is an online platform where one can express oneself using their voice instead of text. Every unique voice stamp is called a croak on the platform.
Exotel which competes with Gurgaon-based, Sequoia-backed startup Knowlarity plan to acquire more startups which operate in the voice space. Last January Knowlarity bought Delhi-based cloud telephony start-up Unicom Techlabs, for an undisclosed amount.
In March 2012, Exotel had secured Rs 2.5 crore ($0.5 million) from Mumbai Angels and Blume Ventures.
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