Asset management firm Noosphere has acquired Fiksu, a US-based mobile app marketing company backed by semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm, for an undisclosed sum.
Fiksu will now operate as part of Noosphere-owned marketing agency ClickDealer.
Fiksu has created a rewards-based app discovery network named FreeMyApps that it claims has been responsible for some 7.2 billion app downloads. That product and Fiksu’s technology are expected to improve functionality of ClickDealer’s own mobile advertising offerings.
Fiksu will gain access to ClickDealer’s sales leads and technical resources, in turn helping the business with scale and international expansion.
Fiksu most recently secured $10m in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Qualcomm, joined a $9m funding round in 2012 that was also backed by Charles River Ventures.
In 2010, Fiksu closed several rounds, respectively bringing $5.5m, $294,000 and $1.25m, according to securities filings.
Dmitry Atamanyuk, chief executive of ClickDealer, said: “ClickDealer is growing rapidly and we are constantly looking for opportunities to bring best-of-breed digital marketing services to the market.
“Fiksu is a natural fit for us as we enhance our mobile advertising capabilities and this acquisition will allow us to offer the most comprehensive suite of performance-based mobile advertising solutions.
“Fiksu is a market pioneer with five years of aggregated data on their side that we will fold into our own considerable expertise in mobile in order to produce unique monetization opportunities for both advertisers and publishers.”