Monday 12 January 2015

Hike Messenger acquires Zip Phone

by Ziuby

India's Home-grown chat application firm "Hike Messenger" has just acquired US-based voice-calling company Zip Phone, a Y Combinator startup. Hike is planning to launch free voice calling soon, and this first acquisition by the Indian company is a step in that direction. The acquisition is aimed at expanding Hike's product range in the Internet-based communication space, the company said, declining to disclose the acquisition sum. "Zip Phone's technology will allow us to bring free voice calling to the market much faster. Incidentally, this is one of the top requested features from our users as well," Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and chief executive officer, Hike Messenger said.




US-based Anuj Jain developed the Zip Phone app which works globally. The app automatically detects your contacts and intelligently routes calls through 3G or WiFi. You never have to open the app, except once after installation. It promises to deliver clear audio even at low bitrates. Also, all conversation is encrypted for
privacy.



To a question on how this new feature on Hike will be different from voice calling through Skype, Mittal tells Tech in Asia:" With Zip Phone’s technology we’ll be able to build a very bandwidth efficient voice calling stack which we believe is very important for a market like India."

One of India’s highest funded startups of 2014, Hike launched in December 2012.Hike has over 35 million users and has raised $86 million from Tiger Global and BSB till date.



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