Less than a month after closing a $62 million venture round, Atlanta-based MessageGears is already making good on its strategic hiring and international expansion plans.
The team announced this week it has acquired Swrve, an Irish-founded mobile marketing automation platform with employees across Europe and the United States.
MessageGears’ CEO Roger Barnette told Hypepotamus that the “acquisition was opportunistic and the fundraising processes were coincidentally simultaneous to the acquisition processes.”
The two companies had started talking about partnership opportunities back in spring of 2022, according to Barnette.
MessageGears focuses on providing enterprise marketers with the key data they need to send personalized email, SMS, and mobile app communications. The Swrve acquisition will help the startup move into more digital channels, including mobile push, web, and TV.
Expanding those digital channels is important for enterprise B2C brands looking to create a more personalized, native experience when talking with their customers online and inside of their mobile apps.
Financial details surrounding the acquisition were not disclosed by either company. But Barnette said that all 50 of Swrve’s employees in the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom will remain in place.
Founded in 2009, Swrve is now headquartered in San Francisco. The team’s largest funding round was a $30 million Series C in 2015. Swrve raised over $71 million in venture funding over the years and counts Atlantic Bridge, Acero Capital, Intel Capital, NETGEAR, and Summit Bridge Capital as some of its investors.
This is MessageGears’ first acquisition. Founded in 2010, some of MessageGears’ more recent investors include Atlanta Ventures, The Argentum Group, and Long Ridge Equity Partners, who all joined in on the $62 million round in late December 2022.
Hypepotamus first covered MessageGears back in 2016 with a Q&A with then CEO Dan Roy. Those who want to take a trip down memory lane and see how the company has expanded over the last several years can check out the interview here.
