Truecaller acquires India’s payment company Chillr, as it eyes Sub-Sahara Africa’s mobile payment space

Last year in March, Truecaller had announced its foray into the digital payments segment in India. The company has now announced a strategic investment into the payment space by acquiring Chillr, India’s first multi-bank payments app launched in 2014 to further boost growth.

“Since launching Truecaller Pay in India in 2017, we’ve seen an increasing number of use cases to make the lives of our users in India easier. We see a lot of synergies and growth patterns in Sub-Sahara Africa, therefore we think it make sense to explore the digital payment space more seriously.” says Truecaller Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Nami Zarringhalam.

With the launch of Truecaller Pay 2.0, the company has brought Banking & Payments features to the forefront of its app, and in the coming months Truecaller is planning on rolling out Credit & other financial services to the masses in a mobile-first way in India. The company is now looking at ways to enter the payment space in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Earlier this year, Truecaller opened up their first office in Nairobi to expand in Sub-Sahara Africaand recruited Zakaria Hersi as Director of Partnerships for Africa. In his position, Zakaria has been spearheading Truecaller’s expansion in the region and forging partnerships with various eco-system players.

Truecaller started as a caller ID and spam blocking app for smartphones, but over the years Truecaller has transformed to a full fledge communication app and has become one of the fastest growing consumer apps in Africa and has consistently been topping the App Store Charts across the continent.

In April,  Truecaller also announced that it now has more than 100 million daily active users.