Singapore-based Near has acquired a minority stake in MEmob+, a Middle Eastern provider of data-driven marketing solutions owned by Dubai-based Akama Holding.
This is Near’s first equity stake in the Middle East. MEmob+ — founded in 2019 by Akama Holding CEO Alexandre Hawari and Ihab El Yaman, the then Head of Mobile and Performance Director of Mediaquest — is a leading data mining platform and location-driven product.
In 2020, its second year in operation, MEmob’s turnover grew by 76 percent.
Anil MathewsNear will work with MEmob+ to continue its global expansion with a push into the Middle East and Africa, a press release issued by Akama Holding said. The companies will look to accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and gold-standard data sources to support the performance of businesses everywhere.
“Our technical collaboration has now evolved into a financial one,”. Said Alexandre Hawari, CEO of Akama Holding. “Together, we will capitalise on the attractive growth dynamics in the emerging markets in MEA to further build out MEmob’s leadership position and create the leading global location data intelligence platform.”
Anil Mathews, CEO of Near said he was excited by the “synergies that exist between our two companies.”
Founded in 2012, Near provides the world’s largest source of intelligence on people, places, and products—processing data from over 1.6 billion monthly users in 44 countries.