Egyptian Esports platform GBarena acquires Tunisian gaming startup Galactech

Egyptian e-sports platform GBarena introduced on Monday that it has acquired the  Tunisian gaming startup, Galactech. The acquisition, based on Forbes Middle East, is a share swap deal value round $15 million. Share swap, in any other case referred to as stock-for-stock, refers to a deal whereby the possession of the shares within the goal firm (Galactech) are transformed into the possession of the shares within the buying firm (GBarena) as per a predefined swap ratio. This means, GBarena is shopping for Galactech with a portion of its shares.

Though Galactech’s valuation wasn’t revealed, GBarena was reported to get pleasure from a valuation of $45 million. According to its web site, the e-sport platform has over 650,000 customers throughout 27 nations, together with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE. 

Founded in 2015 by Samer Wagdy and Mustafa Zaza, GBarena prides itself because the pioneering e-sport platform within the MENA area, with a mission to attach all e-sport stakeholders in MENA and your complete world.

“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,” stated Wagdy, CEO of GBarena.

Leveraging Galactech’s already-built enterprise rails, this acquisition is anticipated to assist GBarena acquire floor in Riyadh, Dubai, and Tunisia. Galactech can even be capable to faucet into each GBarena’s established consumer base and sources to strengthen its presence within the area,” stated Houcem Maiza, Galactech founder and CEO, who has now joined GBarena as co-CEO.

Galactech, based in 2016, has 200,000 energetic customers and has raised $1.5 million from three rounds from OTF, OQAL angels, and the Younis Family Office in Tunisia. 

Eight-years-old GBArena has raised $700,000 from two rounds and an undisclosed third funding spherical from AUC Angel and La French Tech, and an undisclosed assist from the Egyptian Ministry of Communication. Forbes reported that GBarena is anticipated to shut its Series A funding spherical later this yr.

The gaming trade has recorded an astronic development over the previous three years, due to the intervention of the COVID-19 lockdown. According to a Research and Markets report, the cellular gaming market is predicted to witness a compound annual development fee of 12.6% from 2021 to 2026. The gaming trade is rising within the MENA area, a Redseer report says, and the gaming market in MENA is anticipated to surpass $5 billion by 2025, growing by 19% from 2019, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE main development ranges.  

GBarena stated it’s eyeing extra acquisitions of gaming studios and platforms, particularly within the fields of Web3 and AI.

This is the second publicly introduced merger and acquisition (M&A) this month in Africa, and the second for Tunisia and the Maghreb area, following BioNTech’s $686.5 million acquisition of Instadeep.