Truecaller appoints Odd Bolin as CFO ahead of planned IPO

Stockholm-based caller identification app Truecaller has appointed Odd Bolin as its new chief financial officer (CFO) ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO).

Bolin will be joining the management team in Stockholm and overseeing the financial management and operations to support the company’s growth and to prepare Truecaller for an IPO, according to a statement.

“As Truecaller is preparing for an IPO, Odd will play a key role in the process. We have strong confidence in Odd’s expertise and previous experience in taking high growth companies public, and we believe that he will add great value to the company and the management team,” Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder, Truecaller said.

According to the company, its active user base rose 25% last year, from 213 million active users at the beginning of the year to 267 million active users globally at the end of 2020. The company became profitable and cash flow-positive during the year. 

Currently, Truecaller has 195 million active users in India alone.

Prior to the appointment, Bolin was the Group CFO at mobile marketing and ad tech firm Sinch where he helped take the company public and led half a dozen international acquisitions, including Sinch’s $130 million acquisition of mobile technology firm Mblox in 2016. He has also been Group CFO at Zacco, an intellectual property firm; G5 Entertainment, a mobile game developer firm, and IT consultants Cybercom. Bolin has a PhD in Plasma Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

“Truecaller is a success story that I’m very excited to be part of, and I’m eager to support the company in taking it public. I think we’ve only just scratched the surface of our potential. There is still tremendous opportunity to expand our footprint globally,” Bolin said.

Founded in 2009 by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam, Truecaller is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, Atomico, former Vodafone global CEO Arun Sarin and Arvind Rajnish Vohra, former CEO of Gionee India.