Czech Socialbakers Acquires Croatian Socialbrando and Adds Facebook Ad Platform to Its Suite

Czech social media powerhouse Socialbakers and Croatian ad startup Socialbrando have confirmed to Netocratic an acquisition in which the Prague-based social media analytics company is buying the Split-based ad platform startup Socialbrando to add its offering to its suite of social media tools, include a professional analytics package and “builder” app.

Socialbakers secured a $2 million investment from Earlybird Venture Capital in September, giving them the cash to grow faster – and acquire to do so if needed. Socialbrando’s cofounder Mario Frančešević confirmed to Netocratic that the acquistion was made both in cash and equity in Socialbakers, giving the two founders (Frančešević and Andrej Boboš) a stake in their now parent company’s success.

Social Media from CEE, Watch Out!

The deal mimics similar deals such as Google’s acquisition of Wildire apps as well as Salesforce’s acquisition of Buddy Media. While it might took months for the Split-based startup to get Socialbrando of the ground, the acquisition means faster business development.

Socialbakers growth from the Facebook analytics company called Facebakers that was profitable from day one, to the global analytics standard that now has over 1000 clients, shows that the acquisition could be a smart move for Socialbrando’s team. While Frančešević is a well respected internet marketing expert in Southeastern Europe and they had the development capacity to create the product, selling it would be another story. While Socialbrando features one of the best interfaces out there for an “app” of its kind, numerous competitors would make the journey quite hard.

Product Development in Split, BizDev in Prague

It took Facebook more than 300 days to approve Socialbrando’s use of its ad API, a case that working with Socialbakers now should make the hopefully make the only one in the company’s history.

The development team is going to stay in Split. The product will add to Socialbakers’ growing suite of enterprise social media tools, such as Analytics PRO and Builder PRO. It might even be one of the most important ones, since an ad platform would be key to Socialbakers’ clients that want to make their pages and profiles as popular as possible.