Glispa acquires Brazilian mobile ad marketing firm Mobils

Glispa announced today that it has acquired the Brazilian mobile ad marketing company Mobils as part of a plan to expand in the greater Latin American market.

Above: Glispa acquires Mobils.

Image Credit: Glispa

Glispa, a Berlin-based performance marketing company for mobile apps and games, wants to expand its presence in mobile commerce and native ad solutions in Latin America, and the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Mobils is the vehicle to do that.

The Brazilian economy has been weak, but Glispa wants to position itself for growth in emerging markets where mobile is gaining traction, said Gary Lin, chief executive of Glispa, in an interview with VentureBeat. Despite the economic doldrums, Brazil’s mobile commerce market grew 83 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Mobils has established relationships with top Latin American companies, such as Webmotors, Netshoes, and iFood, as well as with premier brands via agency partnerships that include Samsung, McDonalds, GM, and Coca-Cola Mexico.

Lin said that he personally went to Brazil and set up business there in 2008. Glispa was the first performance marketing and advertising company in the territory, and it subsequently built a network of thousands of publisher partners and clients, most notably OLX, PSafe, Buscape, and Dafiti.

The number of Latin American mobile users is expected to exceed 374 million by 2017. In addition to Brazil, Glispa is expanding to Russia, India, and China. And it will also expand within Singapore and Mexico. All told, Glispa already reaches more than a billion smartphone users a month.

“With deep roots in Sao Paulo, Glispa has been conducting business in Brazil for almost a decade,” Lin said in a statement. “We recognized early on that the Latin American market presented immense online marketing opportunities and now with mobile burgeoning, we’re well-positioned to capitalize on this trend. Mobils has a very accomplished team and an impressive network of clients and application developers whom we look forward to serving as we continue our Latin American expansion.”

Before the acquisition, the two companies worked closely as partners. Mobils had a more customized, manual approach to the market, and Glispa provided technology, tracking, and operations support. Now the two companies will combine their expertise to enable Mobils to scale up to more customers over time.

“Glispa’s solutions significantly enhance our reach, delivery and performance across all of our account management and support systems,” said Paulo Maia, CEO of Mobils, in a statement. “More importantly, Gary Lin has established a highly transparent and authentic team that shares similar company values and culture.”

Mobils is focused on providing a full suite of mobile advertising solutions to meet the demands of premium publishers, apps, games, and ad networks. The company aims to increase user downloads and engagement, drive organic traffic to optimize user retention and purchase, and seamlessly integrate native ads that boost click-through and conversion rates.

Roughly 54 percent of Latin American smartphone users already buy products and services with their devices.

Mobils was founded by a number of prominent Brazilian entrepreneurs and investors, including Pierre Schurmann, Maia, and Leandro Oliveto.

Glispa previously acquired ad mediation firm Ampiri in March and said earlier that it closed 2015 on a $100 million revenue run rate.