LAHORE: Slide, the leading lock screen content curator application in Pakistan and India is set to be acquired by Buzzvil, the world’s largest mobile lock screen media platform.
The Slide mobile application that was launched in 2016, allows users to get rewards for reading content on the mobile lock screen, making it a cost-efficient marketing tool for businesses. The application was able to get more than five million downloads during the first 12 months of its launch.
The application that raised $1.2 million as seed round and $3.6 million in Series A funding had over 7 million users as of February 2018 since its launch in Pakistan and India in 2015.
“I tied up with a team in South Korea, and together we launched the product in Pakistan, India and partnered up with Etisalat to launch in Dubai. Recently, we were in talks with Buzzvil who wanted to expand in this region hence the decision to take over Slide. It’s a great leap for us because we as a startup were struggling with more growth and raising more funds. Buzzvil has acquired our tech team and has taken ownership of the product. At the moment we are just going through that process right now,” says Slide CEO Junaid Malik.
However, no financial details of the deal under consideration were revealed. “We have not being given a go-ahead exactly to reveal the number game,’ he insists.
John Lee, CEO of Buzzvil, said, “By taking SlideApp under our wing, Buzzvil is able to onboard excellent developers and continue to scale its geographic reach not only in the Asian, European and the U.S. market but also India, Pakistan and the Middle East.”
Junaid is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a leading digital Agency “CreativeBugs” in Pakistan and also runs a product-centric tech company “Jinnbyte”. He has also invested in a few startups, one of the more promising ones is “Integry” a SAAS based startup in the Valley in the USA.
Earlier in 2017, Buzzvill acquired Slidejoy, a New York-based startup, that rewards users for putting news and advertisements on their mobile lock screens.
Buzvill is itself backed by Korea based SoftBank Ventures founded in 2000 which is a global early-stage venture arm of SoftBank Group with expertise in ICT investments. SoftBank Ventures looks for and invests in startups with a strong potential in Asia, United States (US)., Israel, and the European Union (EU), focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and smart robotics industry.