Mobile recharge firm Komparify buys iReff; Dailyhunt tops up Series E round

Komparify, a mobile recharge platform, has acquired iReff, a mobile plans app, for an undisclosed sum in an all-cash deal, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.

Chennai-based Komparify, formerly known as Planhound, helps consumers find and choose plans to recharge, pay bills and buy new connections using mobile wallets and other payment options. The startup, owned by Cheeni Labs Pvt. Ltd, claims to have mobile, DTH and broadband plans from over 100 operators across India.

The startup is not currently funded by external investors and claims to have 8 million downloads and 4 million monthly users.

Jigar Doshi, co-founder of Komparify said in the statement, “We have been working with iReff as partners for a couple of years and have always respected the clean app.”

Operated by iReff Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the Bengaluru-based startup provides online prepaid mobile recharge plans on its mobile app.

“iReff was started with the vision to provide timely information and tools to help prepaid mobile users get the best of their prepaid subscription. iReff was the first app for the discovery of recharge plans and we quickly became the leader in this space,” said Nizam Mohideen, founder and chief executive of iReff in the statement.

Dailyhunt raises more capital

In another development, Bengaluru-based news aggregator Dailyhunt, run by Ver Se Innovation Pvt. Ltd, has received Rs 24.6 crore ($3.5 million at current rates) as part of its Series E funding round. On Thursday, financial daily Mint reported, quoting data firm paper.VC, that Omidyar Network, Sequoia Capital and the Renu Sehgal Trust participated in this round of external financing.

Dailyhunt’s chief financial officer Abhinandan Raghuthaman confirmed the development to TechCircle. He said, in an email, that the company has raised $25 million in its Series E round.

In September last year, VCCircle had reported that it had received over $6 million (Rs 42 crore then) as the first tranche of a larger Series E funding round from New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge.

Dailyhunt, which was formerly known as Newshunt, relies on a proprietary algorithm powered by deep and machine learning to deliver personalised curated news content.

The startup had raised Rs 168 crore ($25 million then) in a Series D funding round from Chinese content provider ByteDance in October 2016. Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone, and existing investors—Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Falcon Edge and Franklin Templeton PE—had also participated in the round.