Whoscall claims it can analyse a long history of data with the goal to prevent crimes by simulating call patterns of scammers, with the support of the government and telcos

Gogolook, a Taiwanese startup that develops the caller ID app Whoscall, today announced it has raised NT$345 million (approximately US$ 11.7 million) in funding from “well-known institutional investors active in the technology and internet industries”.

The capital raised will be used to expand in Taiwan and global markets, besides scaling up Whoscall’s R&D investments.

Jeff Kuo, Co-founder and CEO of Gogolook, said: “While use of smartphones is widespread, we see little innovation related to phone communication itself in recent years. Social networking apps such as LINE, Facebook, and WhatsApp have tremendously changed the way we communicate with our friends and family. However, phones are still the most common way for us to reach service providers or strangers. Whoscall has the ability to build up a network among global phone users and targeted service providers based on trust.”

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Gogolook was founded in 2012 by three alumni from National Tsing Hwa University. Whoscall is not just a caller ID app that identifies unknown callers and blocks spam calls for users, but also offers value-added services to small and micro businesses.

The firm says it can analyse a long history of data with the goal to prevent crimes by simulating call patterns of scammers, with the support of the government as well as telecom companies.

In addition, Whoscall intends to develop Internet of Things (IoT) devices which can be connected to its database of one billion, in order to protect more Whoscall users.

The firm claims that Whoscall userbase has reached over 60 million globally. So far, it has partnered with 165 anti-fraud hotline of Criminal Investigation Bureau in Taiwan.

In 2015, the startup acquired Call Defender, a popular Android app based in Hong Kong.

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