Truecaller buys Chillr to build mobile-first payments, financial services company

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Sweden-based call-screening app Truecaller has acquired domestic mobile payments service Chillr for an undisclosed amount.

Truecaller, which launched its UPI-based payments service Truecaller Pay in 2017, now wants to become a full-stack mobile payments and financial services platform, with this acquisition.

The Swedish company, which counts India as its largest market by users, plans to integrate financial services such as loans, financing, micro-insurance and more. It already supports peer-to-peer payments through a partnership with ICICI Bank.

"The aim is to go deeper into mobile payments and other associated financial services. We have decided not to charge anything from the users for basic services and are determined to make the process as simple as paying directly through the messaging tab. This will take us beyond just handling messages and calls," said Sony Joy, co-founder of Chillr.

Joy will join Truecaller Pay as Vice President.

After the acquisition, all 45 employees of Chillr will be absorbed within Truecaller, taking the latter's headcount to 110. Chillr will also gradually dilute its brand, and migrate its existing users to Truecaller.

Chillr has been scouting for investors and merger opportunities since early 2017.

The merged entity will leverage Truecaller's full reach of over 150 million registered users in India, as well as its over 300 existing partnerships, to enable Truecaller Pay as a platform.

"We will, together, have a far bigger impact in this space through the foundation of the team’s expertise and a strong user base that trusts our platform and use it on a daily basis," Truecaller co-founder and chief strategy officer, Nami Zarringhalam said.

However, Truecaller lacks the scale of over 200 million active users that WhatsApp enjoys, which is slated to enter the space in near future.

Unfazed by brewing competition in the space, Joy said that he aims to develop Truecaller Pay into one of India's top three payment apps over the next two years.

Truecaller has raised over $90 million from investors so far. Chillr, which offers payment services with more than 50 banks, has raised $7.5 million from the likes of Blume Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Incidentally, Sequoia is invested in both Truecaller and Chillr.