About a month after raising $85 million at a company value of $800 million, Israeli Internet company ironSource is starting to use a small fraction of the money. The company announced today that it was acquiring Israeli gaming company Upopa, which was founded about a year ago. The price of the deal was not disclosed, and there is no information about the amount of money raised by the young company, but it is likely that the amount is in the millions of dollars.
Upopa, which operates out of Kfar Haim in the Hefer Valley, was founded by three Bezalel Academy of Arts graduates: Niv Touboul, Or Avrahamy, and Gideon Rimmer. They have put three mobile games on the market so far, producing 1.35 million downloads. Their most popular game is "Hopeless: The Dark Cave."
The company issued two more games with similar characters under the name Hopeless, but these have not yet become successful, and have not approached the popularity achieved by the first game.
Following the acquisition, the Upopa founders will join ironSource as part of ironLabs, ironSource's internal innovation lab dedicated to creating new products. ironSource explains that the innovation laboratory makes it possible to create a flow of new applications for various platforms, and the acquisition of Upopa will facilitate the addition of experts in mobile games development to what the company has been offering up until now.
"We are always looking for ways to bring new capabilities to developers that can help them turn their ideas into sustainable and scalable businesses,” said ironSource deputy CEO Omer Kaplan. “Upopa's emphasis on creativity and building a truly enjoyable user-experience dovetails perfectly with ironSource’s focus on providing solutions that have the best interests of both the user and the developer in mind.”
“We’re very excited to become part of the ironSource family. It’s an amazing opportunity to utilize this platform to bring our work to new audiences, and to be able to leverage our unique perspective for new ironSource projects,” said Upopa CEO Niv Touboul. According to IVC figures, ironSource, which is believed to be only a few steps away from an IPO planned for next year, will post $270 million in revenue this year, up 22%, compared with $220 million last year. This is a slower growth rate than in 2012, when IVC estimates the company's revenue at $130 million, representing a 70% growth rate.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 4, 2014
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