After building a large European customer base over the course of 15 years, data analytics firm Webtrekk was acquired by digital marketing company Mapp in 2019 in a low-8-figure deal.
Founded in 2004, Berlin-based Webtrekk provided digital analytics services to customers like Deutsche Bank, Zalando and Hugo Boss. At the time of the sale, Webtrekk had 110 employees, 400 customers and annual revenue of roughly €13 million, or $14.5 million, Webtrekk co-founder Christian Sauer told They Got Acquired. Webtrekk was also co-founded by Christopher Schering and Norman Wahnschaff.
“By combining our expertise with Mapp’s platform, we are opening up new opportunities for our clients,” Sauer said in a 2019 press release announcing the sale. “The multifaceted portfolio can be tailored to any need and made available to the most diverse industries.”
Sauer described the process of selling Webtrekk as a “rollercoaster,” and tapped Lincoln International to broker the deal. He added that “strategic interests” led the co-founder trio to sell the firm. They’d previously raised €17 million, or about $19 million.
Why Mapp wanted to buy Webtrekk
Headquartered in San Diego, Mapp is a digital marketing platform that helps users acquire and engage their customers through relevant content. Mapp, which has offices in seven countries, is owned by Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm with more than $6.7 billion of capital under management.
A combined Webtrekk and Mapp platform enables marketers to pool and analyze customer data, as well as serve relevant content to customers, Sauer said in an interview with MarTech. The new platform helps users see a wide variety of customer insights and behavior, create custom product offers, and engage customers through email, websites, SMS, and mobile ads.
Mapp was attracted to Webtrekk based on its reputation as a European leader in data analytics. The cloud-based marketing company was particularly interested in Webtrekk’s success in German-speaking countries, according to the press release announcing the deal.
“Together, Mapp and Webtrekk will evolve into a true customer experience platform — empowering marketers and data analysts in their day-to-day work to deliver exceptional value to their customers,” Mapp CEO Steve Warren said in the same press release.
After the sale of Webtrekk, Sauer co-founded the blockchain tech firm Soonami, Wahnschaff became the director of data science at Mapp, and Schering took on a role as managing director of youth marketing agency Cobra Youth Communication.
