Who’s next? Recently having raised $36 million in funding, PepperTap, the Gurgaon-based hyperlocal grocery service, has tied up with cloud telephony company Exotel to introduce number masking on its mobile app. This way, the user’s number will not be visible to delivery personnel, and be routed through Exotel’s server. The delivery personnel will see a ‘click to call’ option while dialling the customer’s number, which will be replaced with a call centre number. We're not sure what number the user sees when the delivery personnel calls them. PepperTap follows in the footsteps of Ola and Uber: Late last month, Ola launched number masking where the user’s number would not be disclosed to drivers, while calls made by the drivers would be recorded and stored by Ola, across its operational cities in India. In the same week, rival Uber introduced a number masking feature in India, where neither the driver, nor the rider’s number would be displayed when making or receiving a call. Number masking is a good thing when it comes to user privacy. Keeping the numbers of both parties hidden, companies will be able to offer a universal number which either side, the user or the delivery personnel, could call to connect with the respective person. In February this year, Exotel acquired the voice-based media startup Croak.it! for an undisclosed amount. According to the Bangalore based company, there was an overlap in the nature of the problems both the teams were solving and this acquisition would help it improve its services.…
