Mediastay secures a major financing round through a $21,5 million investment to accelerate
The specialist in monetization of online games announces a serie B financing round to fuel its growth and support its international development.
Mediastay, a leading European player in online game monetization secures a major financing round through a $21,5 million investment from Iris Capital and Idinvest Partners (formerly AGF Private Equity).
Founded in 2000 by three young French entrepreneurs, and initially funded by HighCo and later on by Turenne Capital, Mediastay is a leading online sweepstakes publisher (Kingolotto.com, Luckysurf.com…) and a major publisher of casual games (Yacado.com, Diamondsquest.com…).
The games are monetized by lead generation, by the company’s own offer-based payment solution (OfferMatch) and by microtransactions. Its brands count more than 25 million members in 14 countries, with 7 million unique visitors per month (Source: Nielsen). Mediastay's monetization technologies are used on its own web sites, third-party partner web sites as well as on Facebook applications. Known for its solid expertise, Mediastay also became the first French advertising company to be accredited by Facebook to provide advertising solutions for application developers In 2010, Mediastay generated $25 million of revenue. The company has over 60 employees based in Paris (main HQ), Brussels and San Francisco.
Growing its audience and accelerating its international development
This financing round will allow the company to substantially grow its audience, especially through the launch of new web sites, Facebook and mobile applications, and to continue apace in developing its activities in Europe and in the United States. Mediastay also intends to explore external growth opportunities and strengthen its existing team to achieve its objectives.
"We are pleased to welcome highly-regarded investment firms Iris Capital and Idinvest Partners as new partners, alongside HighCo and Turenne Capital. Mediastay now has the capacity to substantially accelerate its expansion and benefit fully from its unique positioning in a market halfway between the very dynamic online gaming industry and the performance marketing sector," declared Mediastay CEO, Jerome Balmes.
"To this point, Mediastay has had a great journey, and is now the French leader in its sector. We believe the company is ideally positioned to bring its ambitious development plan to fruition and we look forward to working to with the Mediastay team to help them seize new opportunities, particularly in the offer-based payment market,"added Iris Capital partner Guillaume Meulle.
"Idinvest Partners is very pleased to support Mediastay's strong growth, as performance marketing is becoming a major factor in the advertising business. This investment will indeed allow the company to accelerate the development of its monetization solutions in Europe while strengthening its presence in online and social games. We've been following the company for several years now, and we are delighted to participate in this exciting undertaking,"declared Idinvest partner Matthieu Baret.
About Iris Capital
Iris Capital is a European capital development fund specializing in media, telecom and IT. Since its inception in 1986, the Iris Capital team has invested over €800 million. Iris Capital invests in service and technology companies that are seeking funds to develop their growth strategies. Through its sector specialization, Iris provides active support to the companies in its portfolio. Based in Paris, the Iris Capital team has invested in 18 countries throughout Europe.
Contact: Guillaume Meulle, Partner, Iris Capital Management, Tel: +33. (0)1.45.62.73.73
About Idinvest Partners (formerly AGF Private Equity)
With 2.7 billion euros under management, Idinvest Partners is a major actor in European Private Equity. The venture capital team has invested in more than 80 companies to date and has a regular, durable investment capacity: more than 50 million Euros are invested each year in young businesses with strong potential, applying an extremely selective methodology. In all, the venture capital team manages more than 700 million Euros.
