By Tatiana Bautzer
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Softbank-backed Brazilian giftback company CRM&BONUS has acquired Zipper, a platform that creates systems for social media sales, for 25 million reais ($4.7 million), the companies said.
“This acquisition allows us to increase offers to retailers to help them raise sales,” CRM&BONUS founder and CEO Alexandre Zolko said in an interview with Reuters.
A giftback company puts shoppers’ discount coupons from retailers onto their mobile phones for online or in-store purchases.
CRM&BONUS, which was founded in 2018, does this for Brazilian retailers.
It was last valued at 1 billion reais ($189 million) in a funding round last year led by Softbank Group Corp and Riverwood, followed by venture capital funds Volpe Capital e Igah Ventures. The company reached annualized revenue of 50 million reais.
Zipper also creates personal e-commerce websites for salespeople of physical stores, enabling them to contact customers and offer them products, mainly through their mobile phones, and send targeted advertisements using geolocation to draw consumers to specific stores.
Among its clients is the subsidiary of German athletic wear Adidas and chocolate maker Kopenhagen. CRM&BONUS will pay part of the acquisition in cash and part in shares.
CRM&BONUS is using the 280 million reais raised in the last funding round for M&A and to increase its international expansion. It also acquired restaurants platform ChefsClub for an undisclosed value.
It has recently began operating in Mexico and Portugal.
“We don’t burn cash, so we can use the funding round proceeds for expansion”, Zolko said. Zipper has also reached break even, he added.
($1 = 5.2835 reais)
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Robert Birsel)
