Berlin-Based Games Performance Marketing Platform Crobo Acquires Hamburg’s TrafficCaptain

In a move that sees some local consolidation in the games marketing space, Crobo, the Berlin-based games performance marketing platform, is hoovering up its Hamburg neighbour TrafficCaptain, which runs a games performance — or affiliate — network. The acquisition price remains undisclosed, so this is unlikely to be a home run for TrafficCaptain’s hands-on backer/co-founder iVentureCapital, which focuses on investing and incubating startups in the games industry.

The acquisition sees Crobo grow its team to over 50 employees, as well as giving it an all-important footprint in Hamburg where there are a lot of online and mobile gaming companies and with whom TrafficCaptain already has relationships with. In addition, the company has decent international reach; Crobo is talking up Latin America and Asia as two markets where the acquisition of TrafficCaptain will help it reach new users for both mobile and browser-based free-to-play games.

It should be noted, however, that Berlin-headquartered and heavily-funded AppLift, which competes in the mobile games marketing space, also has a major presence in Asia and elsewhere.

Sandra Fisher, TrafficCaptain COO, will continue to lead the Hamburg office, while most of the team transitions over to Crobo too. Meanwhile, the acquisition also represents the first exit for a iVentureCapital co-founded company.

In a statement, Michael Reul, CEO at iVentureCapital, comments: “iVentureCapital sees itself as a middle to long-term investor. In the last two years, TrafficCaptain has developed quite well as our first self-produced project in the games branch and we feel that it is now the perfect point in time to move on with new projects. We are very proud of what the engaged TrafficCaptain team has achieved up to this point and we are sure that it will contribute to the further growth and expansion of crobo.”