Route Mobile CEO explains how he is picking the next market for acquisitions

• Latin America will be its second biggest market after Asia, the company’s CEO Rajdip Kumar Gupta said.
• The company raised ₹867.49 crore last month and 60% of this capital will be used to acquire businesses and grow inorganically.
• The Mumbai-based company recently announced the acquisition of a local player Masivian in Latin America for $47.5 million.

Route Mobile, a publicly listed communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) provider, is eyeing aggressive expansion into Latin America and Middle East.

Route Mobile’s founder and Group chief executive (CEO) Rajdip Kumar Gupta told Business Insider that Latin America will be its second biggest market after Asia and would be a major contributor to its revenue as well.

“If we have a larger population in any country, this means more devices are going to be used in those countries. If we talk about the digital communication used in Sweden as compared to India, India is far superior because of the population. Whether we are an emerging country or not, that’s a secondary issue. After Asia and Africa, the next big market is Latin America,” Gupta added.

The Mumbai-based company recently announced the acquisition of a local player Masivian in Latin America for $47.5 million. Route Mobile has bought 100% shares in the company.

Masivian is one of the leading cloud communication platform service providers to enterprises, over-the-top (OTT) platforms and mobile network operators in the region. According to its website, Masivian’s clientele includes Google, Visa, IBM and Microsoft.

It also serves popular national banks of the region like Chile-based Banco Falabella and Puerto Rico-based Banco Popular, among others.

Why is Route Mobile betting on Latin America?

Route Mobile itself works with big enterprises like Airtel, Emirates, Facebook, Google, ICICI Bank, Microsoft, Telegram, WhatsApp and others in the market it serves in. The company has its operations across North America, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

The company provides mobile communication solutions such as text messaging, voice calling, number lookups, firewall, email and other related services.


The acquisition of Masivian has helped Route Mobile cover two large markets of Latin America — Colombia and Peru. The company also had a presence in Chile. This acquisition has also opened doors for Route Mobile to enter Brazil organically as well.

He also highlighted that Latin America is divided into two parts — Portuguese speaking countries and Spanish speaking countries. The acquisition has helped them cover the Spanish-speaking countries in one go. The company just needs to expand into Brazil and Argentina to cover Latin America as a whole.

Route aims to go big in voice communication, blockchain and more

Seventeen-year-old Route Mobile — which sits on a market cap of ₹11,267 crore as on December 3 — raised ₹867.49 crore last month via qualified institutional placement (QIP) from both international and existing investors.

Nearly 60% of this capital would go into acquiring new businesses so that Route Mobile could expand its global footprint. “Right now we haven't identified anything,but right now we are looking at something in voice [communication] business, a part of CPaaS offering, where we don’t have a solid platform as of now,” Gupta added.

The rest of the capital will be used to grow organically by building new products and hiring people across the globe. The company will be looking to grow organically in the internet of things and blockchain technology as these technologies are still in their nascent stages. “We want to make sure that we start building from now, so whenever the market grows, we get an early mover advantage,” he added.


Coming to the Middle East market, Route Mobile bought a 49% stake in Kuwait-based Interteleco in October to strengthen its operations in the region.

Gupta told Business Insider that they have always been stable in the Middle East and that is where they started their business. “In the Middle East, especially in the UAE, the major business is tourism and digital marketing is the key aspect of their growth story,” he added.

He emphasised that UAE was among their biggest revenue generators and they wanted to expand into other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regions. Route Mobile has set up an office in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other regions.

SEE ALSO
Jet Airways stock flies on news that the airline is in talks to buy 100 aircraft ahead of its comeback

Poor demand for Star Health’s IPO forces investment bankers to cut down on promoter offerings; GMP at ₹10 discount

No crypto ban in India — SEBI will reportedly be pulled in to regulate the sector