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In a nutshell, Sinch brings businesses and people closer with tools enabling personal engagement. Our toolbox includes messaging, video, and voice services on five continents, thanks to our advanced cloud communications platform and super network of hundreds of mobile operator connections.
Our global scale already spans more than 35 countries…yet, to enable businesses to reach every mobile phone on the planet in seconds or less, we’ve had our eye on the No. 2 mobile market in the world: India.
We are not alone. The world’s largest tech companies, many of whom are Sinch customers, have been growing their presence in India. Given the country’s mobile-first economy and insatiable consumer interest for the latest mobile technology, it’s clearly a golden opportunity.
“India continues to be the world’s second-largest internet market after China. But what makes it more irresistible to Silicon Valley companies is that it also happens to be the largest untapped internet market in the globe,” a report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Nielsen states. “With close to 900 million people without internet connectivity still, there’s little doubt that the Next Billion Users are going to come from India.”
Facebook recently made a $5.7 billion investment in India, and Microsoft’s premier venture fund has also made its move into the market.
Sinch isn’t one to lag behind the times. Today we’re thrilled to begin our own adventure in India with our acquisition of ACL Mobile, a leading provider of cloud communications services in India and Southeast Asia. ACL Mobile enables businesses to interact with their customers through multiple channels including SMS, voice, email, IP messaging, and WhatsApp.
With more than 500 Enterprise customers, ACL Mobile does scale and does it well, and delivered 48 billion messages in the 12 months ending March 2020.
The company is particularly successful in the Banking & Financial Services industry. ACL’s very own Axiom platform offers intelligent routing and granular access controls that specifically cater to the tough security requirements of demanding financial institutions. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak, and IndusInd Bank all rely on ACL technology – just to name a few.
But it’s not just banking, of course. Customers in other segments include a wide range of businesses such as Amway, Flipkart, MakyMyTrip and OLX.
ACL Mobile will enable Sinch to further strengthen our global messaging product for discerning businesses with global needs – needs which will surely increase given the dizzying mobile adoption within India.
Consider this:
- There are 1.2 billion mobile subscribers in India, and approximately 50% smartphone penetration
- India has the world’s highest data usage per smartphone, at 9.8 GB/month
- The country has a rapidly digitalizing economy; second only to Indonesia in a McKinsey ranking
- India is the world’s largest WhatsApp market, with 400 million users in July 2019
That’s quite a future to anticipate and build. We couldn’t be more stoked to be in the middle of it, to welcome ACL Mobile, and to truly go global for the benefit of our customers.
