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Tunisian Gaming Startup Galactech Acquired

January 18, 2023

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.

“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.

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

What Difference Have Startup Acts Made In African Countries Where They Exist?

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

Egyptian Esports Startup GBarena Raises 6-figure pre-Series A Funding

October 13, 2021

GBarena, a Cairo-based esports and tournaments platform, has raised six figures in its most recent fundraising round. Key angel investors Ahmed Aboudoma, Kushal Shah, and the HIM Angles VC network led the Pre-Series A financing.

GBarena will use the new cash to develop and generate new services, such as a digital store that will be integrated with a special GBarena coin currency that will allow gamers to purchase in-game products straight from the platform.

GBarena has also appointed Eng. Ahmed Aboudoma as the company’s new Executive Chairman as a result of the funding. Eng. Aboudoma will set the key functions and provide top-level leadership and direction to the board of GBarena, bringing with him 27 years of experience in the MICT industry.

“It is an honour to have Eng. Ahmed Aboudoma is part of GBarena’s family as our new Executive Chairman’’ said Samer Wagdy, CEO. “We are looking forward to accomplishing more with him, as well as learning from his experience”.

With this investment, the investors join other investors in Egypt’s startup gaming space such as Flat6Labs, 4DX Ventures. Investment, last year, in Anubis Gaming came from a regional ecommerce group.

Africa’s gaming ecosystem is still developing. Building on the success of “Aurion’s Heritage of Kori-Odan”, which in 2016 became the very first video game made in Cameroon, Cameroonian startup Kiro’o Games, recently announced it has raised more than $1m as part of a fundraising campaign it launched in 2019. This was not the first time Kiro’o Games was raising funds. The startup successfully raised $305,000 through equity crowdfunding between 2013 and 2018, and in 2019 launched a $1 million crowdfunding target through its own crowdfunding platform called Rebuntu Equity Crowdfunding.

All over the world, fantasy sports apps have been popular and have attracted VC money in many other markets too. Dream11, an Indian fantasy sports app recently raised $225 million at a valuation of over $2.5 billion. DraftKings, another fantasy sports startup is valued at $18-billion-dollar.

A Look At What Gbarena Does

Gbarena, a fast-growing esports and tournaments platform backed by Cairo’s AUC Vlab, was founded in 2016 by Mustafa Zaza and Bishoy Mesdary with the goal of creating an online gaming community that connects gamers with tournament organizers and providing organizers with a platform where they can manage and organize their own tournaments seamlessly through fully automated processes. The complexity of Gbarena’s data analytics provides a revenue-generating opportunity by assisting brands in reaching their filtered target groups based on user demographics and behavior.

The company is currently developing additional distinctive services that will benefit the platform’s gamers, organizers, and clients. The new money will be used to develop and produce new services, such as a digital store that will be combined with a unique GBarena coin currency, allowing gamers to purchase in-game products straight from the platform.

“The growing esports industry continues to evolve and thus presents exciting opportunities to create value for rising startups such as GBarena. This round of investment can provide us with a chance to continue to expand, innovate and develop new products that meet the demands and needs of our stakeholders,” CEO Samer Wagdy concluded.

Esports Gbarena Esports Gbarena

Egyptian Gaming Startup Gamesbandy Secures Seed Funding Round

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer