Helpchat acquires Niffler to offer chat-based personal assistance

NEW DELHI: In a move to enable Helpchat launch its services faster in Mumbai and Pune, the company has agreed to acquire Mumbai-based start-up Niffler for an undisclosed amount. Niffler was ideated as a discovery platform for users to access deals and discounts from local brick and mortar stores and recently introduced chat-based interactions between consumers and local businesses. The release says that this makes Niffler a perfect DNA match for Helpchat and the acquisition furthers consolidation of Helpchat’s position in the chat-based personal assistant eco-system in India.

Both Niffler and Helpchat share the common vision of facilitating the everyday life and tasks of consumers with the right information over the highly convenient and quick medium of chat. Acquisition will also enable Helpchat to launch its services in Pune and Mumbai faster as Niffler already has a presence in these key markets. Post the acquisition, the entire team at Niffler will join Helpchat.

Commenting about the acquisition, Ankur Singla, CEO and Founder, Helpchat said, “We are geared for aggressive pan-India growth in the coming few months. The acquisition of Niffler is one of the first major step in this direction. Niffler team has expertise on community-driven experiences and retailer supported commerce.  They share our vision of enabling consumers to get more done through chat-based personal assistance. 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. We are thrilled to have the Niffler team on board and look forward to their contributions in further bolstering Helpchat’s position as a smart personal assistant app for the Indian consumer.”

Niffler co-founder Edul Patel said, “In Helpchat we found the perfect partner 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. We look forward to combining our brand synergies and expertise with theirs and setting new benchmarks in the way consumer-get their daily task done in India.”

Co-founded by Edul Patel, Prince Arora and Viraj Shah, Niffler was launched in July 2014 with the objective of providing a location-based contextual offers and deals discovery platform for the Indian consumers. It had raised funding worth $1 million in March 2015 from SAIF partners.