Wirkle Inc., a Gurgaon-based mobile applications development company, has been acquired by Location Labs, a leading mobile and location-based services firm. However, the financials of the deal were not disclosed.
Wirkle has been a profitable venture (the company claims that it has been generating millions of dollars in revenue per year) and its mobile platform for iPhone and Android is used for applications like OfficeDrop and VideoSurf.
The company is also focused on social networking, instant messaging, location-based services, multimedia streaming, banking, enterprise applications, payments and barcode scanning, among others, in the mobile space and claims that consumers across the globe use its products through various carriers like AT&T, Sprint/Nextel and Boost Mobile in North America; Telenor in Eupore and Airtel and Idea in India and other parts of Asia.
Varun Khurana, CEO and co-founder of Wirkle said, “We are delighted to join the Location Labs team. Together, we will help build the next generation of mobile personal safety and security services.”
Location Labs in 2011 established SafelySM that provides services like Safely Locate, a mobile location service (available via AT&T FamilyMap, Sprint Family Locator and T-Mobile FamilyWhere), Safely Drive, the only carrier-grade, patent-pending safe-driving service on the market (available via Sprint DriveFirst and T-Mobile DriveSmart Plus) and Safely Social Monitor, an online service that helps parents stay informed about kids’ social network activities.
The company has also raised $26 million in venture financing from Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), QUALCOMM Ventures, Intel Capital and Mitsui Ventures. According to Location Labs, the acquisition has increased its core team and with the presence of new mobile engineers and product managers, Location Labs will now strengthen investment in its Safely suite of services.
Wirkle is responsible for building end-to-end mobile applications (including server and client side developments for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian, Brew, Windows mobile and J2ME) – ranging from requirements, design and development to quality assurance, hosting and providing feedback.
“We were impressed by the mobile expertise of Wirkle and Volly. These acquisitions of IP, products and team signify a milestone for us as we accelerate our growth in the mobile personal security space,” said Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO and founder of Location Labs.
