Hiya (company)

Hiya is a Seattle-based company that sells caller's profile information to identify incoming calls and block suggested unwanted ones.[2]

Hiya Muskan
TypePrivate
IndustrySoftware
Founded2016 (2016)
HeadquartersSeattle, Washington, U.S.
Key people
Alex Algard (CEO, founder)
Kush Parikh (President)[1]
Websitewww.hiya.com

History

Hiya was initially developed as a caller-ID app for Whitepages, the largest database of contact information for Americans. In April 2016, Hiya was spun off from Whitepages; by that time, the Hiya app had 25 million downloads. Whitepages' founder, Alex Algard Sr stepped down from the parent company to focus on leading Hiya, which, as of December 2020, employs 120.[3][4]

In February 2016, Hiya (then part of Whitepages) reached a deal with Samsung to integrate its caller profile and spam protection services into all Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge phones in 16 countries. The company extended its partnership with Samsung in a separate deal in August 2016 to include its service on the Galaxy Note 7 and to expand the partnership to a total of 28 countries. In August 2016, Hiya launched Hiya Cloud, its network-level caller ID and call-blocking offering.

After offering only a limited version of its app for iPhones, Hiya announced in September 2016 that the full version of its app would be available on iOS 10. Soon after, Hiya began providing spam protection services to AT&T phones through the AT&T Call Protect product. In 2017, Hiya entered a similar partnership with ZTE to provide call spam protection services for all Axon 7 users.[5]

In October 2017, Hiya announced it had received its first outside funding: a Series A of $18 million led by Balderton Capital with participation from Nautilus Venture Partners and Lumia Capital. Hiya said it would use the funds to expand globally. Following the investment, Balderton’s Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, an early executive at Uber and Dropbox, joined Hiya’s board.[6][7]

Features

Users can report numbers associated with unwanted calls through the app as well as block future calls from certain phone numbers.[8]

References
  1. "Tech Moves: Longtime exec Kurt DelBene to retire from Microsoft; Hiya promotes Kush Parikh to president; and more". GeekWire. January 27, 2021.
  2. "The Hiya Voice Performance Platform". www.hiya.com. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
  3. Feldman, Amy (September 16, 2016). "Whitepages founder Alex Algard gives up CEO slot to focus on Caller ID startup Hiya". Forbes.
  4. Morgan, Rick (December 14, 2020). "Caller ID startup Hiya plans to grow workforce 30% in 2021". The Business Journals.
  5. Bray, Hiawatha (February 2, 2017). "In Trump era, you may need to beef up your robocall defenses". BostonGlobe.
  6. Lerman, Rachel (October 19, 2017). "Seattle startup Hiya raises $18 million". Seattle Times.
  7. Feldman, Amy (October 19, 2017). "At Whitepages, Alex Algard Bought Out His VCs. Now At Hiya He's Raised $18M To Fight Phone Spam". Forbes.
  8. Stern, Joanna (June 28, 2016). "How to stop robocalls...or at least fight back". Wall Street Journal.
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