German group buys Porto’s email marketing platform

  • ECO News
  • 9 February 2022

Audience Serv acquires the Porto-based Emailbidding. The company promise to keep the operation in Portugal, invest in technology and expand it internationally.

Audience Serv, an international customer acquisition and lead generation specialist with offices in Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Singapore and Hanoi, has just bought the Portuguese company Emailbidding.

The company located in the UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto, in Asprela, and that was until now in the hands of the Impacting Group, holds an e-mail marketing marketplace that enables advertisers and agencies to acquire new customers via email. The company distinguishes itself in the market by the automatic segmentation of the target groups and by avoiding the duplication of users.

“They are specialists in customer acquisition through email marketing. So they were very interested in our platform to leverage this channel and to be able to do with optimisation and scale what they already do. And by buying the company they can make modifications and invest in technology to adapt it to the evolution [of the business], having greater control”, explains Ana Cunha, who remains as executive president.

The head of the Portuguese company, which in 2021 reported a turnover of half a million euros, stresses to ECO that “the product already works very well and was bought for its added value” in digital marketing actions. It should be noted that Emailbidding is used by companies like Rádio Popular, Toyota Caetano, Autobiz, Motoblouz or O2.

Audience Serv guarantees that “there will be an investment in the product, evolution and growth”. However, it remains to be seen whether this development will be done in Portugal – which would imply recruiting new professionals- or from Vietnam, where the German company, with a total of 90 employees, currently concentrates the technical teams.

The Germans guarantee they will keep the team in Portugal and argue that, due to the ” similar solution approaches” of Audience Serv and Emailbidding, “the synergies of the acquisition promise great potential for further business growth”. In a statement posted on social media, they highlight that the Emailbidding’s platform and experts complement the solutions and “expand the service portfolio” for the clients of the Berlin-based company.

“I’m very happy that Emailbidding is now part of Audience Serv. It was quite an intense deal. Besides a beautiful office in Porto and a great team, Emailbidding offers an impressive platform, which helps us to target better and optimize our sending. Another important step to become the nº1 direct marketing specialist,” co-founder and co-CEO David Pikart wrote on LinkedIn.