Truecaller Caller ID System To Extend Financial Services In India

Swedish caller identification system TrueCaller is dipping its toes in the financial services water as it prepares for an initial public offering in the next two years.

It’s trialing a new financial services product in India, according to a report on Wednesday (Dec. 18).

The company has started to provide credit to small business owners in India. Next year, it will begin offering that service to some of its 140 million users in that country, said CEO and Co-founder Alan Mamedi, according to Bloomberg.

The bulk of TrueCaller’s customers are in India, and over half of its 230 employees are based there, too.

By extending credit (via financial partners) to the roughly 20 million Indian customers who are small businesses, the company hopes to position themselves for the stock exchange and an initial public offering by 2022.

Mamedi said the revenue from subscriptions, advertising and FinTech will be roughly equal in three years. He told the publication that the potential was quite significant in a market where “very few are banked and digitalized.”

TrueCaller started as just a company that provided information about incoming phone calls, but has expanded to include messaging, call functionality and mobile payments. Indian law says it can’t charge for payments, but it has launched an ad-free subscription service that now encompasses around 30 percent of their base.

TrueCaller’s revenue is set to almost double to more than 300 Swedish kronor ($32 million) this year, according to Mamedi.

The company also recently started offering a service to allow business owners to set up profiles with details about their open hours, offerings and more. Mamedi said there was a lack of trusted directory for that in India – many businesses previously had to get creative, using Photoshop to add images from stores to their profile pictures, engaging with companies that way.

TrueCaller’s success is one among many in India, which has many companies attempting to diversify their offerings to be all-encompassing. Paytm has added credit cards, as has ride-hailing company Ola, and Paytm has teamed up with Zomato for a possible food ordering option. Amazon Pay in India added an app to book airline tickets this year.