Voodoo, a French mobile apps and games publisher, has acquired BeReal for €500 million. As part of the acquisition, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat will leave the company after a transition period. Aymeric Roffé, the CEO of Wizz, one of Voodoo’s social media apps, will take over as BeReal’s CEO.
BeReal, which has more than 40 million active users, gained popularity during the pandemic. Despite its early success, the company has been struggling to grow its user base, and was looking for a buyer as it was running out of funding.
“BeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,” said Alexandre Yazdi, Voodoo co-founder and CEO, in a press release. “We are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo’s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.”
Voodoo says the acquisition will give BeReal the opportunity to build and release new features and refocus on growth through organic and paid marketing across markets. Voodoo plans to do so by leveraging its experience of building and growing mobile products, like it did with Helix Jump, Mob Control, Block Jam 3D and Wizz.
BeReal was founded in 2019 with the mission of fostering genuine, unedited connections during a time of flawless picture-perfect Instagram posts and Stories. On BeReal, users receive a push notification each day prompting them to post they’re up within a two-minute window. The platform’s lack of “likes” or “followers” creates a space for sharing real moments without the pressure to perform.
Although BeReal started with a simple premise, the company rolled out a number of additional features over the past year, such as groups, mentions, multiple posts per day, pinned posts and a “friends of friends” feed.
“Voodoo has a proven track record of driving significant growth in mobile apps,” Barreyat said in the press release. “Their resources and expertise will help bring BeReal on a sustainable growth path while continuing to deliver on its mission to create an authentic world that keeps you connected with the people you really care about.”
Voodoo says BeReal is one of the most popular social networks in its three key markets: the United States, Japan and France. The company says half of the users in these countries use the app at least six days a week.
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