Qualcomm Invests in ChaCha, Company Raises $3M
The Indianapolis-based ChaCha Search real time answers service had closed a $3 million financing round to support the expansion of its mobile service. This funding is an extension of an earlier October round which raised $20 million, and out of the $3 million ChaCha raised in the latest round Qualcomm Ventures invested $900,000.
“The company said it has answered nearly 1 billion questions in the past two years, reaching more than 15 million unique users every month through its mobile platforms and website.”
ChaCha had raised a total of $75 million in funding since its launch in Dec. 2005, and it’s making its income by embedding ads in answers people receive from human operators, either via text or call. The service provider has roughly 60 employees and over 30,000 independent contractors receiving fees on a per task basis.
Qualcomm’s investments spread across a variety of sectors, including, of course, with a steady focus on mobile technology. Qualcomm recently announced plans to acquire Bluetooth wireless and global positioning chipmaker and competitor, Atheros. The company reported it will pay $45 per share for Atheros, which adds up to around $3.2 billion. Qualcomm earlier participated in a $10 million Viewdle investment round alongside Best Buy, BlackBerry, Qualcomm and Anthem Venture Partners.
Qualcomm had its fare share of updates lately, and the same is true for the freshly funded ChaCha. The service expanded via MMS and added new marketing options including the ability to send images with coupons to users launch rich media content, offer instant redemption, message contest information and more.
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