CleverTap acquires Patch to enable in-app calling for mobile-first brands and businesses

Patch is designed to provide seamless, contextual, and secure communications between companies and consumers.

User engagement and retention cloud CleverTap has acquired Patch– a tech firm that enables businesses to brand and embed communication channels — including in-app voice, chat, and push notifications — directly into consumer apps. The company has not disclosed the terms of the deal.

For Vikrant Chowdhary, chief growth officer, CleverTap, the acquisition is the first in CleverTap’s eight-year history and marks an important milestone in the ongoing innovation journey of CleverTap expanding its capabilities. “The new capability will elevate the end-customer experience and empower brands and businesses globally to communicate with millions of their customers seamlessly. For CleverTap, the Patch acquisition is strategic and significant because it positions CleverTap as the first and only marketing and retention platform to offer in-app telephony capabilities,” he added.

Patch is designed to provide seamless, contextual, and secure communications between companies and consumers. More importantly, its in-app calling makes two-way communication privacy-compliant, as there is no need to disclose caller or receiver telephone numbers or personal data.

Currently, all companies that offer apps — from retail to fintech and from ride-hailing to meal ordering — are forced to use unverified phone numbers to communicate with their customers and update them on urgent information such as delivery status or recent credit card charges. Predictably, these phone calls, which are delivered outside of the app experience, neither carry transactional context nor recognisable phone numbers or caller ID, and often fuel customer anxiety and mistrust. Often dismissed as spam by consumers, the calls regularly go unanswered. The outcome is a poor customer experience for the consumer and a loss of revenue for brands and businesses that are unable to connect with consumers at critical stages in the customer journey. “For consumers, knowing who is calling and understanding the context from within the app increases trust and drives digital interactions and transactions,” Chowdhary said, adding that as customers engage more frequently or deeply, brands and businesses also benefit because they reduce friction and increase the opportunities to generate revenues.”

It’s also the first time these capabilities are being offered to mobile-first brands and businesses across the globe. “Having in-app voice capabilities as a part of the CleverTap Retention Cloud is a game-changer for digital brands. It enables a trusted, two-way conversation between companies and their customers with context, security, and speedy resolution or assistance,” Anand Jain, co-founder and chief product officer, stated.

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