Social network giant Facebook has reportedly acquired Servicefriend, a chatbot startup, with the apparent aim to provide customer service for Facebook Calibra users. Facebook will be collaborating with Servicefriend to build a messaging bot for Calibra’s users.

The company had recently launched Facebook Calibra to add financial services and digital payments to its portfolio. Within Calibra, users would be provided with a digital crypto currency called Libra which is set to be launched by 2020. According to Facebook, the cornerstone of this initiative is to enable users to conduct real life transactions like paying bills or using a public transport by going cashless.

Recently, in the wake of the highly controversial Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, Facebook suspended more than ten thousand applications as a part of its investigation.

Facebook is currently staying silent about this acquisition, however, Servicefriend co-founders Ido Arad and Shahar Ben Ami had updated their LinkedIn profiles, and had mentioned that they now work at Facebook’s Calibra, a digital wallet group for the America-based social media company.

Facebook stated that it is focusing on taking over smaller tech companies and startups occasionally to boost its service offerings.

According to reliable sources, the co-founders of Servicefriend updated their profiles which showed that the acquisition has been closed. A message on Servicefriend’s website says that since the past half-decade, the firm has managed to provide a great platform for applications such as Whatsapp and Messenger. 

The Israeli startup, which was initiated by Tel Aviv in 2017 reported that its platform enables the customer service team to handle incoming messages with ease and at rapid speeds. Sources familiar with the matter also reported that Servicefriend had partnered with Facebook in the past by building “hybrid” bots for the company. The aim was to facilitate and improve the human based customer service teams.

Source – https://www.siliconrepublic.com/companies/facebook-servicefriend-calibra