Business

Brazil-based Bemobi acquires Chilean company Tiaxa for up to $38 million to expand in Latin America

After IPO in Brazil in February, the company advances in inorganic growth strategy with a second acquisition, soon after announcing M4U purchase

Photo: Screenshot/Bemobi/Website
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  • Brazil’s “Netflix of mobile games and apps”, Bemobi wants to strengthen its position in the microfinance segment;
  • Born in Brazil, Bemobi is present in more than 40 emerging countries through partnerships with 76 telecom operators and has more than 61 million subscribers.

The app subscription club Bemobi Mobile has announced its second acquisition after its IPO in February this year when it raised more than BRL 1 billion. It is Chile’s Tiaxa, with whom Bemobi hopes to speed up microfinance solutions and geographic expansion.

The acquisition of Tiaxa “for up to $38 million” comes shortly after the announcement of the purchase of M4U last Friday.

READ ALSO: Known as “the Netflix for apps and mobile games,” Bemobi buys M4U payment platform expands its product offering and reach

Tiaxa operates with “microcredits” in emerging countries. In addition to Chile, the company has offices in the U.S, Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines and operates in more than 16 countries with a greater prominence of its platform in Latin America and Asia.

According to Bemobi, Tiaxa has partnerships with various companies in the financial sector such as banks, fintechs, and e-commerce companies, for whom it offers solutions based on the data of millions of telecom users, banked or not, for credit decisions, fraud prevention, and business support.

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In 2020, Tiaxa had net revenues of $17.2 million and achieved adjusted EBITDA of approximately $3 million. “We are delighted to communicate to the market our second acquisition following the IPO. Tiaxa will strengthen our position in the microfinance segment with new competencies in data science, in which we already operate through several offering modalities, and will accelerate our expansion of this service line while maintaining our focus on emerging markets,” says Pedro Ripper, co-founder, and CEO of Bemobi, in a press release.

With more than 61 million customers around the world, Bemobi is known as the “Netflix of mobile apps and games“. Founded in Brazil in 2009, the company offers thousands of apps and games from partners such as Disney, Viacom, Rovio, and Ubisoft, without ads and with all features released through a subscription.

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By using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, through its proprietary digital distribution platform (Loop), Bemobi tracks the consumption routine of millions of mobile phone users, in partnership with 76 mobile operators such as Claro, Vodafone, Vivo, Tim, Movistar, and Oi, to bring relevant offers to the context of each user. Bemobi already operates in more than 40 countries.

“Over the years, we have reinvented our business a few times, made mistakes, learned, got it right, and grown. With the purchase of Tiaxa and M4U we are virtually doubling all our financial indicators, even before capturing the many operational synergies,” says Ripper. “We remain capitalized with the funds raised in the IPO, with the same pace of pursuing new companies, and with the same principles that have guided the acquisitions we have already made.”

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