Helpchat, a chat-based personal assistant app that helps users get things done on the go, has announced it will acquire Mumbai-based start-up Niffler for an undisclosed amount. Niffler is a discovery platform for users to access deals and discounts from local brick and mortar stores and is active in Mumbai and Pune. The acquisition will aid Helpchat in its expansion plans in the two cities.
Post the acquisition, the entire team of 30 employees at Niffler will join Helpchat. Niffler had 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 eco-system in India,” said Ankur Singla, chief executive officer and founder, Helpchat.
The hyperlocal space in India is attracting a lot of interest. The other players in the space include Haptik, Lookup and even Facebook's recent addition, M, and other on-demand hyper local services such as LocalOye.
Helpchat, which has its offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, is geared for aggressive pan-India growth in the coming few months. “The acquisition will also help Helpchat accelerate the growth of its personal assistant engine across the areas of offline commerce and local deals based on user's intent,” Singla added. Helpchat, which was formerly Akosha, has more than 600 employees. It manages about 60,000 requests everyday and and looks to increase this to 200,000 within six months and plans to expand to 10 cities. Currently, it is present in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru.
Niffler was co-founded by Edul Patel, Prince Arora and Viraj Shah in July 2014. It had raised funding worth $1 million in March from SAIF Partners.
“Helpchat we found the perfect partners to further our mission of plugging the information gap that exists in India. We share Helpchat’s vision of assisting consumers in getting more done by doing less, using its chat-based personal assistant app,” said Niffler in a statement.
