Rock Content compra norte-americana ScribbleLive

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Rock Content compra norte-americana ScribbleLive

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Rock Content compra norte-americana ScribbleLive

Forbes noticiou ontem a aquisição da empresa norte-americana produtora de conteúdo e plataforma de páginas interativas ScribbleLive, criando um dos maiores conglomerados do setor nas Américas.


12 de dezembro de 2019 - 16h26

As duas companhias fazem coisas parecidas: com uma cadeia que, somada, agora chega a 80 mil colaboradores, ambas são especializadas na produção de conteúdos que gerem resultados de engajamento e conversão.

A empresa mineira Rock Content torna-se, com a aquisição, um dos mais fortes players desse segmento do marketing de conteúdo das Américas, passando a ser um competidor a altura de empresas consagradas como Contently e Newscred.

Com a aquisição, a Rock Content ganha também acesso a clientes da ScribbleLive como Red Bull, Cisco, FedEx, Dell, Reuters, Deloitte e American Express.

Abaixo, a íntegra da notícia publicada ontem com exclusividade pela Forbes.

Exclusive: Brazil’s Rock Content Acquires ScribbleLive

 

 

Brazilian content marketing startup Rock Content has announced the purchase of US sector player ScribbleLive, creating one of the largest companies in the segment in the Americas.

The buyout, announced exclusively to Forbes, is the continuation of the company’s international expansion, which began in 2017 with the launch of operations in Mexico. With the addition of ScribbleLive (SL), which has offices in Boca Ratón and Toronto, the enlarged Rock organization will boost its 400-strong workforce with about 100 employees. The two companies combined have a freelancer base of about 80,000 professionals.

The new company also brings a client portfolio that includes names like Red Bull, Cisco, FedEx, Dell, Reuters, Deloitte and American Express. Some of the organizations in this consolidated portfolio of over 2,000 customers that were existing clients, such as Oracle, will be catered for with services in Portuguese, Spanish and English, as well as other content-related products offered by the group.

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“Being able to help our customers consolidate their content marketing efforts across multiple geographies and languages is the most exciting piece this acquisition brings,” said Rock co-founder Diego Gomes. “Our network of creative professionals is a unique feature that no other content platform can offer.”

The value of the deal was not disclosed, but, according to Gomes, the price tag is in the “tens of millions of dollars” and involved the exit of about a dozen SL investors, such as Summerhill Venture Partners, First Ascent Ventures and Fidelity Growth. The buyout was supported by a small funding round from Rock’s current investor base, which includes e.bricks Ventures, Provence Capital and Unbox Capital.

The relationship between the companies began a little over two years ago and, according to Gomes, ScribbleLive’s competitive process included “intense negotiations” over a six-month period: “In the end, our long-term vision made more sense for ScribbleLive than the other options on the table,” the founder noted.

According to Mary Ward, chief commercial and marketing officer at the US company, the culture brought by the Brazilian company was another important factor in SL’s decision.

“We were particularly attracted to the team and culture and vision that Rock brought to the table, as their values were very similar to our own,” she noted.

“And certainly, we were attracted to the resources that Rock was able to offer to accelerate our growth and put us on the path of becoming a global category leader.”

Without mentioning names, Gomes noted that a common feature of competitors of equal or greater size is that they are heavily reliant on venture capital, in some cases with multiples up to 15 times higher than the total amount of VC capital raised by Rock throughout its existence. According to the founder, the firm’s management and those in the stock option pool control over 51% of the capital.

“What sets us apart from competition is capital efficiency. Rock has grown rapidly and profitably, which is a rare feat in our category,” he argued. Competitors in the content marketing space include companies such as Contently, Skyword, Kapost and Newscred.

According to Ward, Rock’s capital efficiency was another factor that prompted SL to join forces with the Brazilian company: “We value sustainable growth and, in a over capitalized category, the companies that will win are the ones focused on long term growth. ”

The integration between the Rock and ScribbleLive teams is expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2020. Commercially, the team plans to start the new year selling the offerings of the consolidated portfolio: for example, SL’s Visually video content creation product, will be pitched to Latin American customers and Rock’s Stage blog platform will be offered to clients in North America.

The skills of the teams that currently make up the wider group are complementary and, according to Gomes, the idea is not to rationalize but further expand the workforce: the company plans to hire up to 100 roles in technology, marketing and sales across the four countries where it is present in 2020.

“We are building a global and distributed company, and this movement creates a lot of opportunities for talents who want to work and develop in a true multinational environment,” the founder said.

Although more Brazilian companies are starting to develop their global footprint, Gomes noted that businesses in the Latin country still have work to do in terms of exploring international opportunities:

“Often times, Brazilian companies are way too focused on the local market due to its size and avoid looking beyond it. But successful companies must focus on building good products, cultivating good relationships with customers as well as good teams and driving global competitiveness,” he argued.

“What we are doing as a Brazilian business is atypical and consolidating a category is extremely challenging, but we are certainly building a great story.”

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