Mobile internet and VAS firm One97 Communications Pvt Ltd has acquired the cross-messaging platform , run by Bangalore-based Plustxt Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd, for under $2 million in a cash-and-equity deal.
“The Plustxt team has created a scalable platform with many firsts, focusing on Indian needs. For the masses to use mobile internet, we need many language products and Plustxt has done well in that area,†said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of One97, while commenting on the acquisition.
Set up in 2012 by IIT Bombay graduate Lokesh Chauhan, IIT Delhi alumnus Parag Arora, IIM Calcutta alumnus Pratyush Prasanna, along with Lohith V (a B Tech in Computer Science from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka), Plustxt translates the sender’s text to the language of the recipient. It is currently available on iPhone and Android OS-powered devices, but the company plans to extend the service to BlackBerry, Windows and Java phones soon. Earlier this year, the startup raised an undisclosed sum from Mumbai Angels and InMobi co-founder Amit Gupta. It had also been a part of the Microsoft Accelerator programme.
This is One97’s second acquisition in the past nine months. Last December, the company acquired Delhi-based mobile marketing platform MobiVite to foray into the mobile marketing services space.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)