Athens based adtech startup Avocarrot has been acquired by Berlin’s Glispa Global Group, the two companies have announced. Although no information was released as to the terms of the deal, sources say the price was around the $20 million mark.
Avocarrot joined the London-based company builder that targets technical graduates to help them become entrepreneurs before it started investing in the startups it puts through its program.
The company operates an ad exchange that allows bids on ads in different countries with a focus on in-app marketing. Described as a native advertising Supply-Side Platform, Avocarrot offer a monetisation solution for mobile apps via less intrusive advertising, dubbed ‘native advertising’.
“It’s very similar to what Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest do for their own apps (showing ads that match the design of their platforms), but we provide this functionality for all other apps that don’t have the resources of Facebook to create and continuously optimise native ads themselves,” explains Avocarrot co-founder Conno Christou.
Avocarrot’s four technical founders, Conno Christou, Georgios Makkoulis, Giorgos Eracleous, and Panagiotis Papageorgiou, and 14 additional Avocarrot engineers will join the Ampiri team of engineers and data scientists.
“Avocarrot brings immediate value to Glispa Global Group and together we’re offering one of the top independent, native advertising solutions on the market today. With two acquisitions this year and the launch of the Ampiri native ad mediation platform we’re solidly positioned to drive monetization for app developers and help them reach their full revenue potential,” said Gary Lin Founder and CEO of Glispa Global Group in a statement.
The acquisition is welcoming good news for Greece as the economic crisis has been especially difficult for technology entrepreneurs over the last few years. The last major acquisition came when Microsoft bought big data company Menatauntix in December 2015.
Founded in London, Avocarrot has opened up offices in Athens and San Francisco. They list Conno Christou, Georgios Makkoulis, Giorgos Eracleous and Panagiotis Papageorgiou as its technical founders. They have 14 other employees according to their press release. Glispa, headquartered in Berlin, thoroughly lists 140 employees on their website. They also have offices in San Francisco, Bengaluru, Sao Paulo, Beijing and Tel Aviv.
