Korea’s Yello Mobile continues acquisition spree, snaps up Indonesia’s Adplus

South Korea-based Yello Mobile announced today that it’s acquiring a majority stake in Adplus, a homegrown adtech company in Indonesia, for an undisclosed amount. Adplus co-founder and CEO Yazid Faizin confirms that he and his fellow co-founder Pandu Wirawan, along with the startup’s previous investors, will retain the minority ownership of the company.

Yello Mobile covers online shopping, mobile media, advertising and digital marketing, online travel, and online-to-offline business models. The move in Indonesia illustrates how the company is following through on a Southeast Asian expansion. Yello Mobile went on a bona fide acquisition spree last year, eating up 61 companies within 12 months. In November, the company secured a US$100 million investment from Formation 8, bringing its valuation to US$1 billion since its 2012 inception. In May, the startup gobbled up Indonesian price comparison site PriceArea.

Adplus claims to hold one of the top spots in Indonesia’s digital media and advertising market alongside Google and Innity. It serves several multinational clients including AXA, Coca Cola, Minute Maid, Nokia, and Samsung. The company also works closely with global advertising and media agencies.

Adplus co-founders Yazid Faizin (left) and Pandu Wirawan Arief (right).

See: Pitch6 turns mobile advertising into a social experience for Indonesians

Digital marketing boom in Indonesia

“Yello Mobile was very different and unique in approaching us. The group’s business model for partnership and development was very fascinating and attractive,”
explains Adplus co-founder and CEO Yazid Faizin. With the acquisition, Faizin hopes the venture can become the leading digital marketing company in Southeast Asia.

Adplus claims to have facilitated more than one billion monthly mobile and desktop ad impressions since its inception in 2012. Faizin says that with Indonesia’s large population and a mobile penetration rate that is expected to reach 100 million users by 2018, Adplus is well-positioned for growth. Faizin is encouraged by data from US-based market research firm eMarketer which says Indonesia’s digital advertising market volume increased by 98 percent in 2014.

“Leaning on the experience and skill sets of our digital marketing partners in Korea, we are now actively pushing forward to investing overseas, placing immediate focus on Southeast Asia’s growth potential in mobile and digital marketing,” says Lee Sang-Hyuk, CEO of Yello Mobile. “Our goal is to translate the success we have experienced locally into becoming a leader in digital marketing regionally, and our partnership with Adplus marks a promising beginning.”

Yello Mobile plans to have its existing partners collaborate with Adplus. Some of these companies include social advertisment agency WiseBirds (Adwitt), adtech firm Cauly, and digital marketing agencies AdQUA and E-motion.