QTalk Raises $1.6 Mn From Accel, Lightspeed To Enrich Phone Calls

As people across the country struggle to find ways to spend excess time at home, video streaming and mobile games have seen great adoption in India in recent times. But the feeling of talking to a friend while watching a video or playing a game is hard to replicate in a lockdown. Bengaluru-based QTalk has a solution allowing users to do other things such a browse the web, watch videos and even play games while on a phone call. Founded in 2018 by Sagar Modi and Advaith Vishwanath, QTalk raised $1.6 Mn in seed funding from venture capital firms Accel India and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

With this funding, QTalk is planning to improve its tech stack and hire more people to work on its product which is in the early stages of development right now. As of now, 20 people are working with the startup at its office in Koramangala, Bengaluru.

QTalk allows users to stream YouTube videos, play games, read articles, or browse social media platforms together while being on a call, thanks to the in-app browser. As of now, games such as Ludo, Hangman, Scrabble, Tic Tac Toe, Crossword, Guess the Celebrity, among others, are available on the platform. With these social features, the startup aims to make normal phone calls more engaging and entertaining. QTalk claims to have developed a technology which reduces the disruptions that happen during a  call.

It helps users to add the reason why they are calling which the receiver can answer or not, depending on the urgency of the call. Also, it allows users to mark some contacts as trusted. Calls from these trusted will skip the silent mode so that people don’t miss any urgent calls.

The application is in the early stages and is available on the Google Play Store. QTalk is working on an iOS version of the application is looking to roll out soon. Also, the startups plan to revamp the application by adding more features in the next two months. From early 2018 to the end of 2019, the startup was under bootstrap.

To promote the application, the company has also launched a campus ambassador programme. QTalk also claims that all the conversations of these users are kept private. Also, since the platform is targeting the Gen Z people, which are still in colleges, it intends not to charge anything from them.