Israeli games developer Playtika Ltd. announced today that it has set up Playtika Growth Investments, a new $400 million investment fund. The fund plans investing in Israeli mobile and Internet digital entertainment and consumer product companies. Playtika Growth Investment will focus on companies that are profitable or close to profitability and with annual revenue of at least $10 million.
Playtika's investment model will be active. The company says that it is interested in investing in companies capable of benefiting from its experience in two aspects. The first is operations, so that the investments will include a direct connection between the companies and Playtika's professional marketing and data teams. Playtika Growth managing director Eric Rapps says, "Playtika's operating teams manage marketing budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, process and analyze six terabytes of information daily, and manage $1 billion in revenue. They have turned a startup with 10 people into a market leader with 1,700 employees in 10 countries."
The second aspect is the management and business side of the companies. Young startups, for example, will require training in planning their long-term strategy and fostering of their acquisition capabilities. Playtika has spent more than $300 million on acquiring 10 companies. Playtika was also acquired twice itself. Chinese corporation Giant acquired it in July 2016 for $4.4 billion.
"Our DNA is Israeli, but after having been owned by two major US companies and currently being owned by investment institutions from China, we understand much better how to manage a global business with sophisticated multinational partners, and what capabilities are needed in order to enable Israel to build world-leading companies, not just innovative startups," said Playtika founding partner and CEO Robert Antokol.
Most of the fund is designated for investment in Israeli companies, and the rest in international companies, but Playtika is not committed to investing a specific amount in Israeli companies. According to Rapps, Playtika wants to invest in Israeli companies in order to help and develop large companies in Israel with global influence.
Playtika Growth is currently located in Playtika's offices in Herzliya, but plans to move to its own offices in Tel Aviv this year when it recruits its own staff. The company will begin investing when it carries out its planned move, but is already open to applications from candidates.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2018
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