Over the weekend there was a story in The Sunday Times about Mark Mason, who founded UK start-up and mobile app developer, Mubaloo, six years ago and has just sold the business to IPG Mediabrands, part of Interpublic, one of the world’s top four marketing agencies.
In the article, Mediabrands declined to reveal what it had paid but the company is thought to have been worth up to £20m. Mubaloo’s turnover last year is believed to have been more than £5m.
Likewise another rival of ours, The App Business, 24th in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 with sales of £11.5m, was sold to St Ives last month in a deal worth more than £50m, and ArcTouch was recently acquired by WPP.
This got me thinking about how now that three significant app developers have been sold, we are the largest independent app developer left in the marketplace. So why the sudden surge in interest, so much so that these three businesses have just been sold for pretty hefty amounts? If we look at Mediabrands, through the Mubaloo acquisition it is now able to deliver end-to-end mobile programmes, app development, and enterprise integration and connected IoT technologies, such as beacons.
What we are certainly finding is that as roles within the c-suite shift towards a digital mind-set, mobile is being tightly integrated (and demanded) across the CIO, CTO and CMO agenda. The fact that three developers have been acquired by leading marketing companies within a short space of time indicates that there is a shift in the market, as this represents a need by media and marketing agencies to seek a technological advantage over each other to service their clients.
This shift was also confirmed in a recent report by Forrester Research, which stated that in order for organisations to differentiate their brands, “marketing leaders will select agencies able to ideate new engagement scenarios combining the power of smartphones, wearables, and other connected objects.” In other words, those without the technical capability to help deliver these services to clients, will lose over time. Jason Carter, chief digital officer at IPG, stated that “no company can NOT afford to be a technology company today.”
What is even more interesting is that just this week, we went public with our crowdfunding campaign to raise growth capital via Seedrs. We are looking to raise £750,000 in order to continue to develop and grow the business. But what is really exciting is that the campaign went live on Monday and was not only immediately the top campaign on the Seedrs home page, but within 24 hours we had 50 new investors, so I can see the level of interest already.
At Pocket App, we have experienced several years of rapid growth working alongside major brands such as Coca Cola, Adidas, BAT, OKI and Epson, to name but a few. Now as the business prepares to take the leap into the super-premium space, we are offering the opportunity for investors to jump on board and help fuel the development of our company.
The good news is we’re already 44% of the way there following our private launch and have raised £326,688 so far, with 90+ investors on board. The even better news is that the campaign is now open to the public, so this is your opportunity to not only jump on board and support a profitable, ambitious company, BUT we also have some fantastic perks on offer to all investors!
And you don’t need to invest big, you can invest from as little as £15 via Seedrs. So I urge you, don’t miss out on the opportunity to get involved in what could very easily be the next Mubaloo!
