Helpchat Acquires Niffler To Improve Chat Based Personal Assistant’s Capabilities

Delhi-based Helpchat, a chat-based personal assistant app that lets users get things done over chat has acquired Mumbai-based startup Niffler that helps users to discover deals and discounts from brick and mortar stores. The amount of deal has been left undisclosed.

The acquisition will help Helpchat in its expansion plans in the two cities.

Founded in 2014 by Edul Patel, Prince Arora and Viraj Shah, Niffler helps in finding deals from offline merchants across categories including food and drinks, spas and salons, apparel and home decor.

Niffler was incepted as a discovery platform for users to access deals and discounts from local brick and mortar stores and recently introduced chat-based interactions between consumers and local businesses. This makes Niffler a perfect DNA match for Helpchat and the acquisition a step further in the consolidation of Helpchat’s dominant position in the chat-based personal assistant ecosystem in India, said the company.

Niffler has more than 3,000 offers in over 60,000 stores with a base of over 40,000 engaged users. Brands like Zara, Forever 21 and Shoppers Stop have had their ‘End of Season Sales’ featured.

In March this year, the firm had raised $1 Mn (about INR 6.18 Cr.) in seed funding from SAIF Partners.

Post acquisition, Niffler’s team of 30 will join Helpchat.

“The acquisition will also assist Helpchat accelerate the growth of its personal assistant engine across offline commerce areas and local deals based on user’s intent,” Ankur Singla said.

Akosha, an online complaints redressal company which had rebranded itself in July this year to Helpchat. The startup manages about 60,000 requests everyday and looks to increase this to 200,000 within six months.

Founded in 2010 by Ankur Singla and Vishal Pal Chaudhary, Helpchat is currently operational in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, and is now planning to expand to 10 other cities. The company had raised over $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr.) in Series B round led by Sequoia in May this year.

Deepak Ravindran founded Lookup closely competes with Helpchat.

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