WE-HUB & Truecaller Sign a MoU to Accelerate Women Entrepreneurship in Telangana

Pragya Misra, Director, Public Affairs at Truecaller & Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE-Hub, Government of Telangana signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate women’s entrepreneurship in Telangana in the presence

• The collaborative partnership aims to equip women entrepreneurs with the requisite tools to scale their businesses
• WE-HUB and Truecaller will extend mentorship and necessary leadership support to women-led start-ups

Truecaller, a leading global communications platform and WE HUB, Government of Telangana’s first and only state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote women-led start-ups across Telangana. This is another step by Truecaller to increase participation of women entrepreneurs in the digital space. The MoU was signed between Ms Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB & Ms Pragya Misra, Director of Public Affairs at Truecaller, in the presence of Mr Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary to the Government of Telangana, IT E&C department.

Truecaller will extend its Software Development Kit (SDK) to start-ups to improve their user funnel and drive growth with mobile number verification. The SDK is designed to help developers build world-class verification infrastructure at lightning speed and has helped multiple organizations drive and scale their businesses. In addition, Truecaller will provide advertisement credits worth 25,000 USD to promote visibility and scale for upcoming start-ups, their products and services. Encouraging problem-solving and innovation, WE-Hub & Truecaller will host hackathons on mutually identified problem statements, with rewards and prizes sponsored by Truecaller to incentivise wider participation. Further, leaders of the organizations will extend mentorship and necessary support as requested by women entrepreneurs and startups in the state.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of Commerce & Industries, Information Technology Departments, Government of Telangana, who graced the occasion with his presence, commented, “The Government of Telangana has always supported collaboration between entities and believes in the potential and impact of supporting start-ups in the state. The partnership between WE-HUB and Truecaller will reinforce our commitment to this booming sector and give women founders and teams dedicated support in their entrepreneurial journey.”

Talking about the initiative, Ms Pragya Misra, Director of Public Affairs at Truecaller, said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with WE-HUB and contribute to Telangana’s diverse, vibrant and collaborative start-up ecosystem. As a platform, we are constantly evolving and making efforts to learn, build and give back to the community. We are confident that the entire start-up community will benefit from the smooth onboarding through SDK and increasing discovery of these businesses by advertising on Truecaller. This is another step in our mission to make communication safe and efficient. ”

Commenting on the development, Ms Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB, said, “We are glad to collaborate with Truecaller to support women-led start-ups with avenues to scale up using innovative platforms. This will not only enable them to go on and spearhead innovation in the country, but will also support them with a suite of benefits like growth, visibility of their products, and networking opportunities with customers. This partnership marks another milestone for WE Hub - aligning perfectly with our vision of accelerating women entrepreneurship across India.”

Over the past four years, WE HUB has been actively working towards enabling women-led start-ups across sectors to scale and accelerate through global market access. To date, WE-HUB has incubated 238 technology-enabled start-ups by Women founders.

WE HUB is the first-of-its-kind and only state-run platform for women entrepreneurs by the Government of Telangana. WE HUB supports women entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, solutions, and entities focusing on emerging areas in technology and allied sectors. WE HUB also supports under-explored/unexplored sectors, such as FMCG, retail, and e-commerce, including the service sector. The mandate and goal of WE HUB are to eliminate financial and societal barriers for women and help them succeed in their enterprises. WE HUB aims to create a supportive community for aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs where they can interact with VCs for funding, connect with corporates for scaling up their businesses, get advice from mentors to fine-tune ideas; and benefit from technical mentoring.

About Truecaller: We enable safe and relevant conversations between people and make it efficient for businesses to connect with consumers. Fraud and unwanted communication are endemic to digital economies, especially in emerging markets. We are on a mission to build trust in communication. Truecaller is an essential part of everyday communication for over 320 million active users, with half a billion downloads since launch and close to 38 billion unwanted calls identified and blocked in 2021. Headquartered in Stockholm, since 2009, we are a co-founder-led, entrepreneurial company, with a highly experienced management team. Truecaller has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since Oct 8th 2021. For more information, please visit corporate.truecaller.com

For more information, please contact: press@truecaller.com

Truecaller to Acquire Israeli App CallHero

Truecaller, the leading global platform for verifying contacts and blocking unwanted communications, has entered into an agreement to acquire the Israeli company CallHero (www.getcallhero.com). CallHero has developed a unique technical solution for both Android and iPhone, with an AI-enabled assistant. CallHero's assistant can answer calls for you in a natural language, take messages for you and even block your calendar. The feature will be integrated into Truecaller in a phased manner.

Truecaller to acquire Israeli app CallHero

You can also read more about CallHero and the technology behind it on our blog

"CallHero gives the user intelligent support in handling incoming calls with the help of an AI-based assistant who answers the call. The conversation between the caller and the assistant is visible in text-based format, live in the app. This service will help our users prioritize what is relevant and important without having to talk. The technology that CallHero is going to strengthen our offering. The service will start in the US first since that's where CallHero operated but our ambition is of course to roll out the service in all our markets, including India. CallHero today has a well-developed advanced functionality for iPhone users, which is important in the western world, but also a valuable complement to our work to make Truecaller more efficient and user-friendly for both iPhone and Android users worldwide," said Alan Mamedi, CEO and Co-founder of Truecaller.

CallHero Joins Truecaller

Watch a short video about CallHero here

The agreed purchase price amounts to USD 4.5 million, of which USD 2.6 million will be paid in cash upon completion of the acquisition and USD 1.9 million through newly issued shares in Truecaller. The purpose of the issue of new shares is to strengthen the long-term commitment to Truecaller for certain key persons at CallHero. In addition, a potential additional purchase price of a maximum of USD 2 million will be paid, provided that certain goals are achieved for a period of up to four years after the transaction is completed. Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition will be financed through existing cash and newly issued shares in Truecaller AB. The acquisition is primarily a technology and competence acquisition and is not considered to have a material impact on the results in 2022.

For more information, please contact: press@truecaller.com.

About Truecaller

We enable safe and relevant conversations between people and make it efficient for businesses to connect with consumers. Fraud and unwanted communication are endemic to digital economies, especially in emerging markets. We are on a mission to build trust in communication. Truecaller is an essential part of everyday communication for over 300 million active users, with half a billion downloads since launch and close to 38 billion unwanted calls identified and blocked in 2021. Headquartered in Stockholm, since 2009, we are a Co-founder-led, entrepreneurial company, with a highly experienced management team. Truecaller has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 8 October 2021.

For more information, please visit corporate.truecaller.com.

India Among Top-10 Spammed Countries; Gujarat, Maha, Andhra Top-3 Spammed States

Truecaller, a caller identification app with over 150 million monthly active users in India, has released a report titled "Truecaller Insights: Top 20 Countries Affected by Spam Calls in 2020" and according to this Indian telecom operators accounted for 52% of all spam calls in the country in 2020, followed by telemarketers, who comprised another 34%.

Global Spam Trends 2020 -

• Brazil is still the most affected country when it comes to spam calls, with an increase of 9% compared to last year.
• The US is now the second most spammed country in the world, and has seen a 56% increase of spam calls compared to last year. This is a significant rise from last year’s position of 8th. 
• India, a country that used to receive the most spam calls in the world, has now dropped to 9th position. 
• Last year, the South American region dominated the top 10 most spammed countries list. This year Chile, Peru and Colombia have seen a decrease in spam calls.
• A lot of European countries have surfaced on the list – Hungary, Poland, Spain, UK, Ukraine, Germany, Romania, Greece and Belgium. None of these countries were on the list last year. 
• The biggest increase of spam calls comes from Europe and the US – where Hungary has seen the biggest jump (1132%), followed by Germany (685%), Belgium (557%) and Romania (395%).
• Indonesia (18.3), India (16.8), Vietnam (14.7) and Russia (14.3) are the most affected countries in Asia. 
• An escalation of scam calls and robocalls around the world is expanding their share within the most common spam categories. Scammers taking advantage of the pandemic is a reason for the increase of scam calls.
• Just like us, spammers take time off from work on weekends, as can be seen in a global weekly reduction of spam calls on those days.

Spam reached its lowest point in April, when strict curfews and lock downs were implemented worldwide. The overall volume of calls also dipped during this period. However, from this point, reports of scammers taking advantage of the uncertainty around the pandemic emerged. In May, spam calls started to pick up again and have been increasing on average by 9.7% per month.

October, with a record high in terms of spam calls, was 22.4% higher than the pre-lockdown period.

Despite a reduction in the amount of spam calls received (34%), India still makes it into the top 10 most spammed countries. Only 3 years ago, India was ranked as the most spammed country in the world.

Truecaller data shows that 98.5% of all spam calls in India come from domestic numbers. This could partly explain why the total number of spam calls have decreased in India as compared to previous years. This means that the strict curfews and lockdowns in India made it impossible for telemarketers to go to work, or utilize the equipment they need to carry out large scale spam campaigns.

Overall, the spam trends look very similar to last year with the exception that scam calls in particular increased from 6% to 9%. Based on community feedback and internal reports, we have noticed a very particular type of scam in India that seems to gain traction each year. We are talking, of course, about KYC and OTP related scams. They are now so common that even you may have experienced this yourself or know of someone who has. The scammers try to hook unsuspecting people using either phone calls or SMS and the tactic is always the same: they will try to get you to give up sensitive information about your financials or force you to you reveal a secret OTP with the ultimate aim of extracting money from your bank accounts or digital wallets.

Another interesting fact: In the first 3 months of lockdown in India calls to emergency services spiked by 148% at the beginning of the lockdown.

Details of 4+ Crore Indian TrueCaller Users Available on Darknet - Report

Details of over four crore Indian users of TrueCaller are now available for sale at just $1,000 on the Dark Web, as per Cyble Inc, a U.S -based cyber intelligence firm.

Truecaller however has denied the breach and according to a LiveMint report, the company has said that there has been no breach of the company’s database and all user information was secure.

The indentified cyber-criminal behind the data leak is posing by the name of 'TooGod' on the dark web. The low price suggests that the threat actor has some interest in gaining attention or expanding his customer base.

According to a company spokesperson's statement, "We were informed about a similar sale of data in May 2019. What they have here is likely the same dataset as before."

Truecaller is a mobile app that has features of caller-identification, call-blocking, and flagging spam numbners

According to a report by The Hindu, citing a study by cyber-intel firm Cyble -- the leaked data reveals that the details belong to citizens from all over the country, including from States like Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, North East India, Odisha and Punjab, along with another folder titled ‘Unknown’. The details include phone numbers, names, genders, locations, emails ids and Facebook profile information.

Researchers from Cybel have identified a known player on the dark web offering details of a whopping 4.75 crore Indians for sale. Even more surprisingly, the entire packet, which would be regarded as a goldmine in terms of the sheer number of ways it can be misused, is being offered for a surprisingly low $1,000.

Cyble has indexed this information on AmiBreached.com -- Cyble’s data breach monitoring and notification platform. People who are concerned about their exposure can register on the website to ascertain their exposure,

Indian central and State cybercrime agencies have initiated investigations into the matter, taking into account the scope for the number of crimes that can be committed, including phishing rackets and identity thefts.

8 Out of 10 Women in India have Faced Harassment via Calls, SMS: Truecaller

Eight out of 10 women in India receive harassment and nuisance calls with Chennai, New Delhi and Pune emerging as the most-affected metros by sexual harassment calls/SMS against women, according to a report by Truecaller.

The third edition of 'Understanding the impact of harassment calls and SMS for women in India' found eight out of 10 women respondents in India saying they have faced phone harassment and nuisance calls through calls and SMS messages.

Also, one out of five women respondents said they had received sexual and inappropriate calls. The most-affected cities in India are Chennai, New Delhi, Pune and Kolkata.

Interestingly, India also had the highest rate of women taking action against harassment calls/SMS among the countries surveyed (Kenya, Columbia, Brazil and Egypt).

The report noted that women in India share their number as a common practice, especially when recharging their phone at a store, visiting restaurants, shopping, entering contests and filling in logbooks.

When it comes to taking action against phone harassment, 85 per cent said they blocked the number. While most women chose to ignore this, only 12 per cent reported the number to authorities, the report said.

"We see a worrying trend of an increase in sexual harassment for women through calls and SMS. Normalising harassment has a devastating effect on the victims. Our campaign is building a community of people who are on a mission to encourage women to #MakeTheCall and to take action against such harassment by reporting it to the relevant authorities," Truecaller Managing Director Sandeep Patil said.

Truecaller stands against women's harassment in any and all forms, he added.

The study - supported by Ipsos - covered India, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt and Kenya. The sample size varied from 1,000 to 3,343 women for each market among the age group 18-40.

Caller ID App Truecaller Launches Messaging Service "Truecaller Chat"

Truecaller, which recently released its UPI-based payment services, has now launched its instant messaging (IM) platform "Truecaller Chat" with capabilities to report and tackle false links and fake news, announced Trucaller.

Truecaller Chat, which is currently available in Beta for Android, will be rolling out to the public on Google Play in the next coming weeks.

Truecaller already offers caller, messaging ID services and is now entering the instant messaging space in order to push for localization in India, which is its largest market based on users. This also give us the reason as why the company had acquired Mumbai-based payment startup Chillr, touted as "WhatsApp for money", in June this year.

Truecaller uses crowdsourced data, which enables it to work even in countries such as the UK and India where public data is not available

Unlike Whatsapp, Tucaller messaging service has integrated caller ID service to achieve call-blocking functionality which will help it to prevent the nuisance of fake news that has already created much chaos in India. However, while WhatsApp claims to have 200 million users in India, Truecaller has about 100 million daily user, of which 60 percent are from India.



Additionally, Truecaller Chat is bundled with interesting features such as, auto-switch between SMS and Chat, which will help users keep conversations in one place. Other features include full media support and more that will provide its users a polished and enjoyable experience.

Truecaller Chat will work much like Apple’s iMessage which means that messages sent between Truecaller users will be handled in the app for free, while messages sent to non-users will go over as SMS, which is supported by the app, said a Truecaller representative, in his statement to Techcrunch.

With its Trucaller Chat, the company is aiming to prevent the problems caused by spam and false information from going viral by allowing users to report suspicious links floating on the platform.

In 2015 Truecaller launched its SMS app called Truemessenger exclusively in India. Truemessenger enables users to identify the sender of SMS messages. This launch was aimed at increasing the company's user base in India.

In July, Truecaller also rolled out "Call Recording" feature for Android users to assist them in keeping a track of conversations with businesses, colleagues, friends or strangers.

Caller ID App Truecaller Launches Messaging Service "Truecaller Chat"

Truecaller, which recently released its UPI-based payment services, has now launched its instant messaging (IM) platform "Truecaller Chat" with capabilities to report and tackle false links and fake news, announced Trucaller.

Truecaller Chat, which is currently available in Beta for Android, will be rolling out to the public on Google Play in the next coming weeks.

Truecaller already offers caller, messaging ID services and is now entering the instant messaging space in order to push for localization in India, which is its largest market based on users. This also give us the reason as why the company had acquired Mumbai-based payment startup Chillr, touted as "WhatsApp for money", in June this year.

Truecaller uses crowdsourced data, which enables it to work even in countries such as the UK and India where public data is not available

Unlike Whatsapp, Tucaller messaging service has integrated caller ID service to achieve call-blocking functionality which will help it to prevent the nuisance of fake news that has already created much chaos in India. However, while WhatsApp claims to have 200 million users in India, Truecaller has about 100 million daily user, of which 60 percent are from India.



Additionally, Truecaller Chat is bundled with interesting features such as, auto-switch between SMS and Chat, which will help users keep conversations in one place. Other features include full media support and more that will provide its users a polished and enjoyable experience.

Truecaller Chat will work much like Apple’s iMessage which means that messages sent between Truecaller users will be handled in the app for free, while messages sent to non-users will go over as SMS, which is supported by the app, said a Truecaller representative, in his statement to Techcrunch.

With its Trucaller Chat, the company is aiming to prevent the problems caused by spam and false information from going viral by allowing users to report suspicious links floating on the platform.

In 2015 Truecaller launched its SMS app called Truemessenger exclusively in India. Truemessenger enables users to identify the sender of SMS messages. This launch was aimed at increasing the company's user base in India.

In July, Truecaller also rolled out "Call Recording" feature for Android users to assist them in keeping a track of conversations with businesses, colleagues, friends or strangers.

Truecaller Acquires India's 'WhatsApp for Money' Startup Chillr To Roll Out Payment Services in India

Swedish integrated caller ID service app company TrueCaller has acqui-hired Mumbai-based payment startup Chillr, touted as "WhatsApp for money", to strengthen its payments business in India. The financials of deal were remain undisclosed however.

With this acquisition, TrueCaller will now roll out credit and other financial services to Indian users in the coming months.

Founded in 2013 by Anoop Sankar, Lishoy Bhaskaran, Mohamed Galib and Sony Joy, Chillr allows its users to transfer money to any contact in their phone book. Customers can also recharge their mobile phones and, DTH TV subscriptions and data cards. Backed by high-profile investors like Sequoia Capital and Blume Ventures, who will now make exits, Chillr had raised $7.5 million in two different rounds in year 2014 and 2015.

Post this acquisition, Chillr’s team including its founders will be joining Truecaller. Chillr chief executive Joy will serve as vice president of Truecaller Pay, the firm’s digital payments service, while the full team will be absorbed by TrueCaller. The Stockholm-headquartered company will also double its team size in India.

Truecaller has a user base of 150 million users in India. It also has 300 partners in the country, where it will leverage its payments feature. "We want to be the top three payments ecosystem in the country in the next few months," Joy said.

Chillr started operations in 2013 and had a beta launch of the app this February 2015 as a person-to-person money transfer app to help users transfer cash to any person on their mobile phone contact list via the app without having to know the recipient's bank account details.

Notably, before Chillr, Sony Joy ran a value-added service or VAS and B2B mobile solutions company called MOBME Wireless, while he was still in college in 2006. Chillr was incubated within this MobME only. In 2009, MOBME had received NASSCOM innovation award in startup category.

Chillr was later spun off as a separate entity 'Backwater Technologies (P) Ltd' in December 2014 after having won India's leading private bank HDFC Bank, as its 1st partner bank.

Notably, Truecaller has entered the digital payments space in India with UPI last year. The company is now integrating payments as a core part of its offering, co-founder Nami Zarringhalam told an Indian business daily in April this year.

"By acquiring Chillr, we are strengthening our plans to increase mobile payments adoption amongst our user base," said Zarringhalam adding that users will soon be able to make bill payments using its service in a matter of weeks.

In the coming months, Truecaller will roll out credit and other financial services on its payments app for Indian users, said the Economic Times report.

Truecaller Acquires India's 'WhatsApp for Money' Startup Chillr To Roll Out Payment Services in India

Swedish integrated caller ID service app company TrueCaller has acqui-hired Mumbai-based payment startup Chillr, touted as "WhatsApp for money", to strengthen its payments business in India. The financials of deal were remain undisclosed however.

With this acquisition, TrueCaller will now roll out credit and other financial services to Indian users in the coming months.

Founded in 2013 by Anoop Sankar, Lishoy Bhaskaran, Mohamed Galib and Sony Joy, Chillr allows its users to transfer money to any contact in their phone book. Customers can also recharge their mobile phones and, DTH TV subscriptions and data cards. Backed by high-profile investors like Sequoia Capital and Blume Ventures, who will now make exits, Chillr had raised $7.5 million in two different rounds in year 2014 and 2015.

Post this acquisition, Chillr’s team including its founders will be joining Truecaller. Chillr chief executive Joy will serve as vice president of Truecaller Pay, the firm’s digital payments service, while the full team will be absorbed by TrueCaller. The Stockholm-headquartered company will also double its team size in India.

Truecaller has a user base of 150 million users in India. It also has 300 partners in the country, where it will leverage its payments feature. "We want to be the top three payments ecosystem in the country in the next few months," Joy said.

Chillr started operations in 2013 and had a beta launch of the app this February 2015 as a person-to-person money transfer app to help users transfer cash to any person on their mobile phone contact list via the app without having to know the recipient's bank account details.

Notably, before Chillr, Sony Joy ran a value-added service or VAS and B2B mobile solutions company called MOBME Wireless, while he was still in college in 2006. Chillr was incubated within this MobME only. In 2009, MOBME had received NASSCOM innovation award in startup category.

Chillr was later spun off as a separate entity 'Backwater Technologies (P) Ltd' in December 2014 after having won India's leading private bank HDFC Bank, as its 1st partner bank.

Notably, Truecaller has entered the digital payments space in India with UPI last year. The company is now integrating payments as a core part of its offering, co-founder Nami Zarringhalam told an Indian business daily in April this year.

"By acquiring Chillr, we are strengthening our plans to increase mobile payments adoption amongst our user base," said Zarringhalam adding that users will soon be able to make bill payments using its service in a matter of weeks.

In the coming months, Truecaller will roll out credit and other financial services on its payments app for Indian users, said the Economic Times report.

Stayzilla Appoints Former Truecaller Marketing Head - Anuroop Krishnan

Bengaluru based Stayzilla.com, the largest platform for verified homestays and alternate stays in India, today announced the appointment of Anuroop Krishnan as VP, Marketing. Anuroop joins Stayzilla from Truecaller where he was Director, Marketing & Communication and responsible for all brand communication, engagement and growth initiatives.

At Stayzilla, Anuroop will be responsible for driving strategic marketing and communication initiatives. The latest high profile hire comes on the back of former Twitter Director Pankaj Gupta’s appointment as Chief Product and Technology Officer in May 2016. Stayzilla’s recent hires include global talent from companies like Twitter, Truecaller and Flipkart among others.

Speaking about the appointment, Yogendra Vasupal, CEO & Founder, Stayzilla said, “We welcome Anuroop on board and are confident that his marketing expertise will help us scale new heights. We are happy to have innovative minds like Anuroop partner with us in this journey, at this juncture.”

With nearly a decade’s experience in roles across sales, marketing, branding and communications functions, Anuroop was instrumental in shaping Turecaller’s growth in India over the last year, with his marketing efforts. Anuroop has also worked with Nokia during his formative in sales and marketing roles. He has an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and holds an engineering degree in Telecommunication from VTU, Karnataka.

Bengaluru based Stayzilla.com is the largest platform (website and app) for verified homestays and alternate stays in India. It has more than 55,000 stay options across 4500 towns in the country. The platform caters to both homeowners and travelers looking for differentiated, unique stay experiences.

Truecaller Database Cyber-attacked, Stole Some Data

Truecaller, apparently world's largest collaborative phone directory available as an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry has been lately attacked by cyber-criminals that resulted in an unauthorized access to some data as per official statement given by truecaller, the access has been shut-down the moment it has been discovered by Truecaller.

Truecaller has presently managed have 18 million users and store more than 950 million phone numbers worldwide, the attackers if got succeeded then pretty good information might have got snatched from Truecaller, although Truecaller does not store passwords, credit card information, or any other sensitive information about our users.

Rumours have been there that attackers were able to access Truecaller user’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media passwords, however Truecaller denied the same, that attackers were able get some data but not any sort of sensitive information. Hackers represents Syrian Electronic Army, the attackers via their  twitter handle claimed to have recovered 459 GiBs of database, primarily due to an older version of Wordpress installation on the servers. The TrueCaller official however denied all this.

On the other hand attacker via their Twitter managed to reveal database, username and password of db through which they were able sneak into database of TrueCaller, ironically the password revealed by attackers is - google123, which is ultra simple to hack and shows  how Truecaller officials have taken technicalities for granted.

Trueacaller apart from being  an international phone directory of sorts that covers both fixed-line and mobile phones it also instantly allows to see who the caller is, blocks unwanted calls and more. After the attack the app company should now get more responsible considering the amount of users and phone number it has managed to gather till now.