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Pie will be kicking off a major engineering push in Singapore by Google, who is turning an eye towards Southeast Asia development

Google has confirmed to e27 its acquisition of Singapore-based work-messaging platform Pie.

The company can now enjoy the distinction as being the first startup to be acquired by Google in the Southeast Asia region.

“The team from Pie.co, a Singapore-based startup, will be joining Google in Singapore to help kick-start our engineering team here,” wrote Caesar Sengupta, Vice President of Google’s Next Billion Users Team in a blog to be posted online.

In addition to the acquisition of Pie, Google also announced it is building an engineering team based in Singapore — and the Pie acquisition was the first piece of that puzzle. The Internet giant will be actively hiring engineers in the city in the near future.

The move into Singapore is part of a larger push to adapt and acclimate itself to a region in which millions of users are coming online for the first time — but through low-cost smartphones, a device Google admits its original services were not designed for.

The reason Google choose Singapore as its base is because it is hyper-connected but also centrally located within Southeast Asia.

“These are still early days, but we’re excited about the progress we’re making on this journey, and we look forward to sharing more with you in the months and years ahead. Stay tuned,” said Sengupta.

Also Read: Google’s Wi-Fi pulls in to Mumbai Central Railway Station tomorrow

As for Pie, the company raised a US$1.2 million Series A in June to help build its company as something of a Slack for non-geeks.

It built a product that was easy to use, simple to get off the ground and free.

The post Singapore work-messaging app Pie acquired by Google; first in SEA appeared first on e27.

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