Fresh out of a $ 150 million financing round, the Roblox children's gaming platform is making its first acquisition. The company says it is acquiring the small startup PacketZoom, which takes its equipment and technology internally to help it improve the performance of mobile applications as its platform expands further into global markets.
Founded in 2013, and headquartered in San Mateo, California, PacketZoom had raised a $ 5 million Series A at the end of last year. The company combines a content distribution network (CDN) to accelerate performance with an application performance management tool to identify problems in a single package, TechCrunch explained at the time.
The company's products allow developers to access analysis about the application and problems related to network performance, in addition to optimizing application delivery and content downloads, up to 2 to 3 times faster.
The system in particular is designed to overcome the limitations of slow and unreliable networks, such as those found in emerging markets. It also helps ensure the fastest and lowest latency data transfers worldwide.
It is clear how this acquisition makes sense for Roblox, that offers a platform where children create and play in 3D worlds and games and has global expansion in mind. With PacketZoom integrated into its gaming platform, users will be able to join games faster and have a better experience when playing on mobile devices.
Roblox had said earlier this year that the cash flow was positive and still profitable. He collected funds to store his war chest and have a buffer, while focusing on his international expansion efforts. He also said he would use the funds to make acquisitions and open offices outside the US. UU In some regions, such as China.
PacketZoom had raised $ 11.2 million to date from investors, including Fundador Collective, Tandem Capital, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Arafura Ventures and others.
According to the PacketZoom website, I was working with clients such as Glu Mobile, Sephora, Photofy, Inshorts, Upwork, News Republic, Wave, Belcorp, GOTA, Netmeds, Houzify, Wooplr, Fluik Entertainment, Wondermall, and others. These relationships will be reduced, since Roblox plans to use only intellectual property internally, not to support other clients.
Roblox refused to talk about the acquisition price, but notes that it was a fully cash deal. Includes all the IP and PacketZoom code. The founder and chief technology officer of PacketZoom, Chetan Ahuja, along with PacketZoom's four-person engineering team will join Roblox.