The Tunisian gaming firm Galactech has been bought by the Egyptian e-sports platform GBarena. According to Forbes Middle East, the transaction involves a share swap that costs about $15 million. Share swaps, also known as stock-for-stock transactions, involve the conversion of shares of the target firm (Galactech) into shares of the acquiring company (GBarena) according to a predetermined exchange ratio. This indicates that GBarena is using some of its stock to purchase Galactech.
Galactech’s valuation was not made public, but GBarena was said to be worth $45 million. On its website, the e-sports platform claims to have over 650,000 users in 27 nations, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Samer Wagdy and Mustafa Zaza founded GBarena in 2015 with the goal of bringing together all e-sport players in the MENA area and around the world. GBarena prides itself on being the first e-sport platform in the MENA region.
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“This acquisition is one step forward towards achieving the company’s vision, which is to be the leading aggregator in MENA, serving all stakeholders in the industry,” said Wagdy, CEO of GBarena.
This acquisition is anticipated to aid GBarena in consolidating its position in Riyadh, Dubai, and Tunisia by using the already established business railroads of Galactech. In order to increase its presence in the area, Galactech will also be able to take advantage of GBarena’s established user base and resources, according to Houcem Maiza, co-CEO of GBarena and the former founder and CEO of Galactech.
With 200,000 active users and $1.5 million raised over three rounds from OTF, OQAL angels, and the Tunisian Younis Family Office, Galactech was launched in 2016.
Eight-year-old GBArena has raised $700,000 from two rounds, an unannounced third fundraising round, and an undisclosed support from the Egyptian Ministry of Communication. These funds came from AUC Angel and La French Tech. According to Forbes, GBarena’s Series A fundraising round is anticipated to be closed later this year.
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Thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown’s interference, the gaming sector has experienced amazing growth during the past three years. The mobile gaming industry is expected to develop at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% from 2021 to 2026, according to a Research and Markets research. According to a Redseer analysis, the gaming market in the MENA region is predicted to reach $5 billion by 2025, up 19% from 2019, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE showing the fastest growth rates.
According to GBarena, it plans to buy more gaming studios and platforms, particularly those working in Web3 and AI.
Following BioNTech’s acquisition of Instadeep for $686.5 million, this is the second publicly disclosed merger and acquisition (M&A) this month in Africa and the second for Tunisia and the Maghreb region.
Gaming Galactech
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard