Infobip, the Croatian unicorn company that provides communication and customer engagement software just announced that it has raised $500M through direct loan placement. Additionally, the leader in Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) acquired the Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Peerless Network by going into a definitive agreement with the company. The move marks the fourth acquisition of Infobip this year.
For the closing of its $500M loan financing, Infobip was advised by Morgan Stanley, while the funds were managed by the Credit Group of Ares Management Corporation, and BlackRock. This marks the second funding round of Infobip after its €300M investment in 2020.
“Today’s announcement accelerates our international growth strategy by several years. Financially, strategically, and operationally, this is very positive. The acquisition enables Infobip to continue to grow its business in the US, in sync with Peerless Network’s strategy. Our current and future customers will benefit from access to the most comprehensive suite of CPaaS enabled CPaaS software available in the market on one single platform for an end-to-end customer experience,” Silvio Kutic, CEO of Infobip says in a press release.
When CPaas meets VoIP
With the acquisition of Peerless Network, Infobip will expand its presence in the US Voice-over-IP sector and will start offering its suite of CPaaS offerings to Peerless customers. The deal falls within Infobip’s ongoing acquisition and services expansion strategy. Earlier this year it acquired the US messaging platform OpenMarket, as well as the developer Shift Conference, and the world-leading SMS firewall provider, Anam.
According to Kutic, Peerless will accelerate the voice proposition for the Infobip CPaaS offering. By combining their complementary solutions, the two companies will be able to process more than 30B customer interactions every month across 190 countries around the world and cover the full range of communication channels.
Second South European IPO on the radar?
With the recent financing and the acquisition of a US-based company, the first Croatian unicorn might be moving one step closer to announcing an IPO. Having bootstrapped its growth before the two large investment rounds, Infobip is continuing its fast-track development. In the first quarter of 2021, it recorded a 55% revenue growth.
