As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 12th of November, 2020, the Croatian Infobip, the first domestic "unicorn" with a market value of more than a billion US dollars, is, as we previously reported, entering the American market - they're buying their subsidiary OpenMarket, a platform for sending SMS messages, from the American company Amdocs, for a price of almost 300 million US dollars.
A sales contract with the owner of OpenMarket has now been signed, and the transaction between the Croatian Infobip and OpenMarket, which will be concluded following its approval by US regulators, will enable more than 14 billion user interactions per month through a number of communication channels across more than 190 countries.
''Infobip and OpenMarket together can boast of more than 10,000 business users, which includes many of the world's most prominent companies. We'll be able to better meet the needs of our customers in every part of the world with the best direct connectivity, with more than 650 telecom operators, a superior, shared portfolio of cloud communications solutions and an SaaS offer,'' explained Silvio Kutic, the CEO of the Croatian Infobip, adding that they have an exciting period ahead of them and that this is just the beginning.
Jonathan Morgan, the director of OpenMarket, feels the same way. Back during this summer, the Croatian Infobip raised more than 200 million US dollars in the first round of funding from the investment fund One Equity Partners. Then, they announced their expansion in the USA with the help of the cash from that fund, with the announcement of potential takeovers, and it seems that the current focus is on acquisitions. The trio from Vodnjan - Roberto and Silvio Kutic, as well as Izabel Jelenic - directed precisely that 200 million US dollars towards gaining the largest American clients, which they've now been able to confirm.
The Seattle-based OpenMarket fits into the Croatian Infobip’s portfolio because their main product is cloud-based mobile messaging, which includes sending SMS, MMS, RCS and short codes, local numbers and free messaging. The company has about 300 employees, with revenues of about 200 million US dollars, and their services are used by more than 400 companies. Today, Infobip has more than 65 offices worldwide and more than 2,700 employees. They grossed 602 million US dollars last year and have grown an average of 48 percent a year for the past decade, with more than 300,000 business clients including WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Costco, Virgin Megastore, Strava, Uber, Unilever, Zendesk and Burger King.
They started back in 2006 as a small startup in Vodnjan in Istria, which gradually built up its own global network. Today, they provide proprietary technology that can reach more than seven billion devices in more than 190 countries, and are directly connected to more than 600 telecom operators worldwide.
In just seven years, they have grown from zero kuna to a worth of 100 million US dollars and now they are among the ten fastest growing B2B SaaS companies in the whole world.
In October, the Infobip Management Board received two strong names - Gregor Potocar, who was appointed Vice President for Revenue, while Aleksandar Raic was appointed Vice President for Transformation and Human Resources. Then, Potocar announced that the Croatian Infobip was preparing for the upcoming period of enormous growth of the company, which will be marked by new business segments and entry into new markets.
"Infobip is facing an exciting period in which we expect a large increase in the number of people within the company through acquisitions and new employments, further structuring, as well as the continuation of the digitalisation process at the company level," Raic announced at the time.
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