Philippine tech company Xurpas acquires Singaporean mobile marketing startup

Photo credit: olegdudko / 123RF.

Philippines-based mobile service developer and tech company Xurpas has acquired Singaporean mobile media advertising and marketing startup Art of Click. The deal is initially valued at US$30 million but additional performance-based earn-outs will raise the value to US$45 million.

Art of Click was founded in Singapore in 2011. Its mobile affiliate marketing service brings ads to eyeballs in Asian markets, including South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong, as well as North America and Europe. The startup claims to have more than 4 billion ad impressions per month.

“We are always looking for innovative companies that can complement our business. Art of Click offers just that,” said Nix Nolledo, co-founder and CEO of Xurpas.

Solid foundation

Art of Click had only raised a seed round of US$500,000 in October 2013 from venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners through Singapore’s National Research Foundation.

“Art of Click has made tremendous progress in just three years,” says Paul Santos, managing partner at Wavemaker. “With only [its seed round], it grew to deliver double-digit million dollar revenues at double-digit EBITDA margins.”

“[This is proof that] seed stage investments in viable, fast-growth business-to-business [firms] in Southeast Asia can deliver venture-grade returns,” he added.

This is another successful exit for Wavemaker, which also saw previous investments like Luxola, Gushcloud, and Pie exit through acquisitions. The VC also brought on board Ardent Capital’s portfolio and is currently raising capital for its new Southeast Asia fund.

Xurpas went public in the Philippines Stock Exchange in 2014 and since then has been company-shopping. Some of its acquisitions include Philippines-based game development studio Altitude Games and multiplayer games platform MatchMe, Indonesian mobile content provider 9lives, and California-based mobile search engine Quick.ly.

The company raised an additional US$25.6 million in capital last April to expand to new markets and new verticals.