Mxit acquires Motribe

 ·23 Sep 2012
Alan Knott-Craig Jnr

The mobile social networking platform Mxit has acquired mobile community specialists, Motribe. Mxit is set to become the 100% owner of Motribe after buying out the current shareholders 4Di Capital, Nic Haralambous and Vincent Maher.

“The community portfolio is huge because it embodies our entire Mxit user base, as well as our ability to work with companies to plug into Mxit. Motribe will be taking on the B2B aspect of our business,” said Alan Knott Craig, CEO of Mxit.

“Mxit’s web team is similar in mind-set, tool chain and outlook to Motribe’s development team. The success of Motribe’s apps, JudgeMe and MxPx clearly demonstrated to both companies that there was a lot to be gained from a more formal partnership.”

Justin Stanford, General Partner at 4Di Capital said that the deal is more significant than just a great exit for them and Motribe.

“It’s one of the first startups founded, funded and exited in the ‘Silicon Cape’ era. It’s a sign that the vision we had in 2009 of fostering a vibrant community of successful, local, technology focused startups is coming to reality,” said Stanford.

Current CEO Nic Haralambous will leave the company while co-founder Vincent Maher will lead the team.

Maher and his team will integrate with Mxit’s community division and together, Mxit’s head of community, Peter Matthaei and Maher will extend the platform and tools available to clients and individuals wishing to create and manage community portals on Mxit.

Key projects that Motribe will take the lead on include the integration of a single Mxit ID across platforms via the Mxit APIs and improving the analytic capability across all community interactions.

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