It’s Official: Twitter Acquires Bangalore Based Zipdial, Another Feather In iSpirt’s Cap

After weeks of rumours, finally today Twitter has announced that it has acquired Bangalore based Zipdial. The company has left the deal amount undisclosed, however according to media reports Twitter has put in about  $30 – $40 Mn for this acquisition.

According to sources close to the development, iSpirt has played a significant role in this deal. However when we reached out to them they declined to comment on this development.

As a support system for emerging ideas, iSPIRT is committed to providing an environment that facilitates improved M&A deal flow both for acquirers wanting to gain access to new markets and technologies, as well as the entrepreneurs interested in an exit strategy.

“We’re very pleased to announce we’ve reached an agreement to acquire ZipDial (@zipdial), a product partner based in Bangalore, India, to make Twitter even more accessible to people around the world,” said Twitter in an blog.

ZipDial has built a mobile platform that lets people follow and engage with content across all interfaces. The user experience combines SMS, voice, mobile web, and access to mobile apps to bridge users from offline to online. For example, through ZipDial, it’s easy to engage with a publisher or brand by making a toll-free “missed call” to a designated phone number. The caller will then begin receiving inbound content and further engagement on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification. These interactions are especially appealing in areas where people aren’t always connected to data or only access data through intermittent wifi networks.

Over the past two years we’ve collaborated with ZipDial on a variety of campaigns, including the Indian elections, Bollywood film promotions and @MTVIndia’s#RockTheVote “Dial the Hashtag” campaign. Today, people across India use ZipDial’s platform to access great content, including cricket scores, audio programming, Tweets from their favorite Bollywood stars – and much more – on their mobile phones. Leading figures, including actors, politicians and athletes, also use the platform to instantly reach millions of citizens on Twitter through text and voice messages. By coming together with ZipDial, we’ll help more people around the world enjoy great and relevant Twitter experiences on their mobile phones.

This acquisition significantly increases our investment in India, one of the countries where we’re seeing great growth, and also brings us a new engineering office in Bangalore.

Zipdial on its official blog said that, “ZipDial platform, and now, by coming together with Twitter, we have the tremendous opportunity to elevate everything we’ve built to a global scale. Our ambitious goal is to make Twitter’s unique, great content accessible to 100% of the world’s mobile users, including those in emerging markets who will be experiencing the mobile Internet for the first time. We could not be prouder to join the flock.”

Zipdial claims to have over 500 clients for whom it has done over 7,000 campaigns resulting in over 900 million engagements. Zipdial is also working on expanding its footprint outside of India, in markets such as Southeast Asia.

Last year, ZipDial also started to work with Facebook on advertising campaigns, where brands could include a “missed call” button in their Facebook mobile ad.

Zipdial was founded in 2010 by Valerie Wagoner along with Sanjay Swamy and Amiya Pathak. Founder Valerie Wagoner (CEO), prior to ZipDial was the Head – Strategic Initiatives at mCheck where she targeted the unbanked users, she also did a two-year stint at eBay and short stints at startups SayNow and Ning.

Zipdial’s investors include, Blume Ventures, AngelPrime, Sunil Goyal of YourNest Ventures, and Mumbai Angels, as well as our largest supporters, Jungle Ventures, Unilazer Ventures, and 500 Startups.

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