WPP, a UK-based advertising and marketing services company, has invested $70m in Argentina-based information technology services company Globant.
WPP will hold 20% of Globant. Previous investors, venture capital firms Riverwood Capital and FTV Capital, continue to hold equity stakes in Globant having invested $13m in December 2008 and a further $15m in March 2011.
Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, said: “Increasingly, clients want better coordination between their IT departments and their marketing departments, between their Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and their Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs).
“There are many consulting companies or digital agencies that are expert in one function or the other. Few, if any, do both and even fewer can integrate deep technical and creative capabilities on a global scale as Globant does. Partnering with Globant will allow our companies to increasingly provide our clients with insights and skills that will make their digital marketing efforts even more effective and simpler to manage at both the front and back ends.”
Globant said its net revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were $90m, and the net revenues until 30 June 2012 were $56.9m from clients including WPP companies, such as JWT, Young & Rubicam, Grey, GroupM and Kantar.
WPP said it regarded this decade as very much the decade of Latin America, particularly with the FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil in 2014 and the Olympics in Rio in 2016. The group collectively, including associates, will have revenues of more than $1.6bn and will employ over 18,000 people in the LatAm region.