Swedish Firm Sinch To Acquire Indian Cloud Messaging Company ACL Mobile In $70 Mn Deal

Stockholm-based telecommunications and cloud communications SaaS platform Sinch is all set to enter India after announcing its decision to buy Noida-based ACL Mobile in a $70 Mn cash deal.  

Sinch CEO Oscar Werner said that with the acquisition the company gets a critical scale in the world’s second-largest mobile market. “We gain customers, expertise, technology and we further strengthen our global messaging product for discerning usinesses with global needs,” he added.

ACL Mobile, which has headquarters in Delhi, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, enables businesses to interact with their customers through SMS, email, WhatsApp and other channels. Sinch said ACL Mobile communications platform has more than 500 enterprise customers and is particularly strong in the banking and financial services industry. 

ACL reported gross profits of $14.2 Mn on sales of about $65 Mn in FY20. With a team of 288 people, ACL Mobile claims it delivered 47 Bn messages on behalf of its enterprise customers in FY20.

“Although the long-term growth outlook is favourable, lower commercial activity in India due to the pandemic means that the near-term growth outlook is less predictable,” Sinch said of ACL Mobile’s future outlook.

ACL Mobile is the fourth acquisition Sinch has unveiled since March this year, including SAP’s Digital Interconnect for $250 Mn and Wavy and Chatlayer. “Together with Sinch we are scaling up to become one of the leading global players in our industry. I’m excited about this next chapter and the many new opportunities that we can pursue together,” said Sanjay K Goyal, founder and chief executive of ACL Mobile.

According to Datalabs by Inc42, India has around 8,633 SaaS startups. A report published by Google India and Accel Partners stated that the Indian SaaS industry will be valued at a staggering $50 billion by 2025.

In recent times, SaaS startups have witnessed massive growth in terms of new customers as well as revenues. Some of the notable SaaS startups in India include Zoho, Wigzo Technologies, Wingify, Chargebee, Anaek, among others. According to another report by Datalabs by Inc42, businesses are continuing to make ends meet through remote working, team management tools and SaaS products despite the disruption brought in by the pandemic.

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