OnMobile To Acquire Sweden’s Appland, Expand Its Global Gaming Footprint

Bengaluru-based mobile entertainment company OnMobile Global Limited has said to acquire 100% shares of Sweden-based Appland — kids app clubs subscription services provider, with special focus on game wrapper technology — in an amount “not exceeding 15 Mn”.

“This acquisition reflects the increasing importance of OnMobile’s strategy to become a leader in the fast-growing mobile games market, and expand its games footprint to all continents,” the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

According to OnMobile CEO François-Charles Sirois, the combination of OnMobile and Appland will provide immediate business value and innovation to the customers.

“Our roadmap is to roll out over 100 games clubs by the end of this financial year, increase subscriptions and boost revenues through joint marketing effort with our operators and distribution partners,” an official statement cited Sirois as saying.

OnMobile claims to deliver over 575 million music plays daily to mobile customers worldwide, and has an addressable base of more than 1.5 billion mobile users across several geographies

As part of the acquisition, Appland founder Jonatan Redvik will take up the role of vice-president of its newly-formed games subscription business unit (GSBU). Appland CTO Henrik Lewander will assume the role of CTO of GSBU, the company said.

Appland AB was founded in July 2011 by Redvik and Lewander. It provides its cloud-based app-distribution, subscription and monetisation services to more than 80 telecom operators in over 40 countries, such as Reliance Jio, Ericsson and Ooredoo. It also offers white-label App stores with curated international and local content.

“OnMobile’s global presence, experience, and product portfolio, coupled with Appland’s flexible cloud-based software platform capabilities, will help us to create the future of mobile entertainment,” said Redvik.

India’s Thriving Online Gaming Industry

India currently ranks among the top five countries in the world for online and mobile gaming, according to a report by Flurry Analytics. Here are some recent development in the online gaming ecosystem:

• One97 Communications-owned Paytm has invested $16 Mn in Gamepind Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a mobile gaming offering, in a joint venture (JV) with AGTech, a Hong Kong-based mobile games development company.
• Indian gaming startup Nazara Technologies has acquired 27.42% stake in a development studio CrimzonCode.
• Sachin Tendulkar-backed gaming company Smaaash has raised $6.17 Mn (INR 40.2 Cr) funding from 23 High Networth Individuals (HNIs).
• Hyderabad-based online gaming platform Ace2three has acquired a majority stake in fantasy gaming platform FanFight with an investment of $1 Mn.

Similarly, we have players such as Loco, Passion Gaming, PlaySimple, Flixy Games, GameXS, RedMonsterGames, and more, contributing to the India’s online gaming industry worth $360 Mn — according to May 2017 report by Google KPMG report — which is estimated to grow and reach $1 Bn by 2021.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.