NEW YORK and REDWOOD CITY – December 22, 2020 – Liftoff, a global performance-based mobile app marketing optimization platform, announced today it has reached a definitive agreement for a majority investment from private equity funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX, “Blackstone”). This strategic partnership marks a new phase in Liftoff’s continuing mission to develop industry-leading technology and product solutions that help marketers grow their engaged user bases through initial and ongoing engagement efforts.

Founded in 2012, Liftoff partners with mobile app marketers to grow their platforms globally. Liftoff’s best-in-class technology solutions deliver more than one billion engaging ads each day to high value users in more than 90 countries and across more than 500,000 mobile publishers. As content consumption increasingly shifts to mobile devices, the company is well positioned to serve the high-growth mobile app ecosystem as a leader in programmatic user acquisition and retention. Liftoff has been included on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the U.S. in each of the last four years. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Liftoff has additional offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Berlin, London, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Blackstone has been an active investor in digital content and advertising technology, including recent investments in Ancestry, Bumble, and Vungle. Liftoff’s partnership with Blackstone reflects a shared belief in the future growth potential of the industry and long-term vision to build on Liftoff’s leadership position. Blackstone’s investment will help enable Liftoff to further accelerate investment priorities, expand its global footprint, and fuel future growth initiatives.

Sachin Bavishi, Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “Liftoff is a market leader and a key growth partner for many of the world’s leading mobile app developers through its extensive global reach and strong programmatic capabilities. This investment reflects our high conviction in both mobile content and mobile advertising, and we believe that Blackstone’s extensive resources and expertise will help enable Liftoff to further capitalize on its strong momentum and significant growth potential. We are very excited to partner with Liftoff’s talented founders to continue to provide best-in-class solutions to the industry.”

Martin Brand, Co-Head of U.S. Acquisitions for Blackstone’s Private Equity Group, said: “Liftoff is an independent leader in the marketplace for mobile ads. Blackstone has significant experience investing in the fast-growing mobile ecosystem, and we are excited to back Mark and his team as they continue the rapid growth of Liftoff.”

“We’re excited to be partnering with Blackstone, one of the premier private equity firms in the world,” said Mark Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Liftoff. “Blackstone’s expertise will be invaluable as we continue to scale our company globally, expand our product offerings and help more mobile marketers build a growing audience of engaged users for their mobile experiences.”

The transaction is expected to close early next year, subject to customary closing conditions. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as financial advisor and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP served as legal advisor to Liftoff while LUMA Partners LLC served as financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor to Blackstone. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Liftoff
Liftoff is a complete mobile app marketing platform that helps companies acquire and retain high quality mobile app users at scale. Liftoff uses prediction intelligence and unbiased ML to find engaged users at scale for mobile app marketers, creative testing to deliver the most engaging ad experience and a unique cost per revenue model to optimize for LTV goals. Liftoff is proud to be a long term partner to leading brand advertisers and app publishers since 2012. Headquartered in Redwood City, Liftoff has a global presence with offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Berlin, London, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $584 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

​​​​​CONTACTS

Blackstone 
Matt Anderson
212-390-2472
matthew.anderson@blackstone.com

Liftoff 
Dennis Mink
415-938-6465
dennis@liftoff.io

Investors in the companies seed round include follow-on investment from Innovestor Ventures, Genesis Investments, several superangels and the Business Finland government fund. It’s not the first time PromoRepublic has attracted funding; overall, the company has raised nearly $5M to date.

”The company’s enterprise product tailored for large franchising businesses is showing strong traction, and economies of scale of the SaaS business model is kicking in” – commented Innovestor’s Wilhelm Lindholm

Since its founding in 2015, PromoRepublic has become one of the top social media marketing SaaS providers with over 20,000 active small business users to date. As some small businesses perform under national franchise brands, PromoRepublic recently launched a special solution for head offices to manage their local presence on digital for thousands of locations.

PromoRepublic’s 5-year history and knowledge of small businesses’ marketing philosophy has shown that partners who leverage vendor content, messaging, branding, and demand generation initiatives in their local markets drive a winning customer experience.

“We believe in business models that value partners in their ecosystem, be it franchisees or direct sales representatives. Not only does this model decrease the risks for entrepreneurs, it also nurtures a very personal approach to local customers, which is often impossible for large enterprise companies. We can now leverage our experience in serving thousands of small businesses for use with marketing teams of national and global brands who want to engage their representatives in marketing initiatives“ — says Max Pecherskyi, CEO & Co-founder of PromoRepublic.

According to Forrester’s latest research, the distributed marketing software market will reach $1.18 billion by 2023. This is due to the fact that 75% of all world trade today is indirect. In other words, selling and marketing to and through independent representatives, field salesforces, agents, and franchisees is the new normal. Nearly 50% of all brands invested in distributed marketing in some capacity, Forrester says. Marketing executives consider this approach the most effective for local customer experiences and the key to influencing new buyers. Lockdown and rapid digitization has motivated head offices to actively use software for consistent branding, while representatives create experiences for local customers online and offline.

PromoRepublic in the media: 

Forbes – PromoRepublic Raises $1.5M To Help Corporations Keep Their Sales Messaging Consistent (2.12.20)

For additional information:

Jane Andyol

jane.andyol@promorepublic.com

Founded in 2015, PromoRepublic is a distributed marketing solution that connects small businesses, agencies, and multi-location brands with local audiences. Their 40+ team is spread worldwide: in Palo Alto, New York, London, Helsinki, and Kyiv. They’ve helped more than 200k businesses in 120 countries create more than 9 million social media posts and counting. For more information, visit promorepublic.com.

Media kit with pictures

New York, 15 October 2020

GP Bullhound acted as exclusive financial advisor to digital marketing firm Linkmedia 360 (“Linkmedia”), on its sale to GlynnDevins.

Linkmedia, founded in 2004 and based in the Cleveland, Ohio area, is a data-driven, digital marketing company that leverages data science initiatives in digital channels to ultimately support sales growth with a framework revolving around analytics, insights and action.

The acquisition strengthens GlynnDevins’ digital offering and improves its portfolio of products and services that effectively support sales and lead generation for its clients. Linkmedia Managing Partners David Wolf and Chad Luckie will serve roles on GlynnDevins leadership team. Linkmedia will maintain its office location in Independence, OH and will now be branded as Linkmedia 360 – a GlynnDevins company.

“We have long-admired GlynnDevins’ success,” said Wolf. “Combining our strengths ensures our current and future clients will continue to receive top of line marketing execution and the best value and ROI around their marketing spend.”

“We have built a reputation based on data science and marketing experience that has proven to be successful in advancing our clients’ sales and business goals. Joining GlynnDevins is a tremendous opportunity to continue to accelerate our clients’ successes with data-driven marketing solutions.” said Luckie.

Wolf went on to say, “With their extensive expertise and network in the sector, GP Bullhound has been a great advisory partner for us. They lock-stepped with us through the entire process and their team went above and beyond throughout the engagement.”

Adam Birnbaum, Director at GP Bullhound, stated: “We are delighted to have helped Linkmedia find its ideal strategic partner in GlynnDevins. The combination creates a leader in digital marketing, and we look forward to observing their continued growth and success.”

This transaction is further testament to GP Bullhound’s expertise in the digital services sector, with 20 deals completed in the last 24 months in the sector alone, having previously advised on the merger of Orca Pacific with MightyHive, the acquisition of Jellyfish by Fimalac, the acquisition of Dudnyk by Fishawack and the acquisition of Eruptr by HIG, among many others.