Skillz acquires mobile marketing platform Aarki for $150M

Mobile eSports platform Skillz announced that it has acquired mobile marketing platform Aarki to “broaden its footprint across the rapidly expanding mobile gaming industry by combining its competitive platform with Aarki’s advanced advertising capabilities.” 

The company will pay $150 million in cash and stock to acquire 100% of Aarki. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. Aarki’s 160 employees will join Skillz, with Aarki CEO Levon Budagyan continuing to lead the business as a division of Skillz. 

Aarki, as a demand-side platform (DSP), engages in more than five trillion monthly advertising, the company said in a statement. 

“Joining Skillz will offer tremendous advantages to both the Aarki team and our customer community,” said Budagyan. “Harnessing the combined power of our data science platforms will further increase our industry-leading performance marketing.”

The mobile gaming platform Skillz went public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. back in December. 

“Aarki’s proven machine learning will pair with Skillz’s robust first-party data to create an unrivaled value proposition for game developers,” said Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise. “The integrated ecosystem will unlock new points of connectivity between consumers, developers, and brands, pairing the right impression with the right user at the right time, all while delivering a superior user experience.”