Twitter is in talks to acquire Bangalore-based marketing technology platform Zipdial for about $30 – $40 Mn. Founded by Valerie Wagoner along with Sanjay Swamy and Amiya Pathak in 2010, ZipDial offers unique marketing solution where consumers give missed calls to a number to engage with an advertising brand.
According to TechCrunch, the formal announcement of the acquisition is expected to be made in a week’s time.
As per a source close to the development, another company, possibly Facebook is also in talks to acquire this Bangalore-based startup.
Another source said that nothing has closed yet but doesn’t deny that there have been talks. However, in response to this, Twitter said: “We don’t comment on rumor and speculation.”
Previously, there were also reports of Twitter looking to acquire another Indian startup called Frrole, although no deal materialised.
If done, Zipdial will be another Indian startup acquired by US based firms, last year Facebook had acquired LittleEye Labs, Yahoo acquired Bookpad. Though ZipDial would be Twitter’s first acquisition in India if the deal gets completed.
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.
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.
