Popular Gen-Z social media app BeReal has been acquired by French mobile game and apps publisher Voodoo for €500m in a cash and earnout deal — meaning that part of the funding will be paid once the company has achieved pre-defined financial targets.
One third of the funding (€166m) has already been paid upfront, according to one source with direct knowledge of the deal. Voodoo declined to comment on the details.
Paris-based BeReal, which is backed by global investors Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and DST Global, is a photo-sharing app that pitches itself as a more authentic social media platform than many others.
It raised a $30m Series A round in 2021 followed by a $60m Series B at a €600m valuation in 2022, which was reported by TechCrunch but hasn’t been confirmed by the company.
Voodoo, one of French tech’s older unicorns — founded in 2013 and valued at $1.4bn — creates games and apps for iOS and Android. It received backing from Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent in 2020.
The two companies say that the acquisition will let BeReal develop new features thanks to continued investment from Voodoo, while enabling the social media app to kick-start its growth again. BeReal proved very popular immediately after it launched in 2020 but has since seen attention begin to wane.
“Voodoo has an impressive track record when it comes to developing mobile apps, from both a technical and marketing perspective,” says BeReal founder Alexis Barreyat.
“Their resources and expertise will enable BeReal to get on the path of sustainable growth.”
An anti-influencer app
BeReal launched as an anti-influencer app intended to encourage users to share photos that are more reflective of their real lives.
Each day at a different time, users receive a BeReal notification — ⚠️ Time to BeReal. ⚠️. They have two minutes to snap a photo that includes a selfie and a rear-facing photo that are melded together in a single post.
The platform struck a chord with younger generations and saw a quick rise in popularity after it launched in 2020, reaching 93.5m global downloads in 2022, according to Apptopia.
Success started waning at the end of 2022. Downloads fell from 39.8m in Q3 2022 to 31.5m in Q4 2022, according to Apptopia. This also came with high user churn rates and complaints about the platform’s technical issues such as frequent crashes and glitches.
BeReal says that it now has 40m active users, and its three biggest markets are France, the US and Japan.
The acquisition will support Voodoo’s expansion into social media apps.
“BeReal has generated impressive growth and loyalty from its users,” says Voodoo cofounder Alexandre Yazdi. “We are excited to merge our teams.”
Aymeric Roffé, who is currently leading Voodoo-owned social media app Wizz, will take on the role of CEO at BeReal. Current CEO and cofounder of BeReal Alexi Barreyat will work with Roffé in the “short-term” to ensure the integration of the business, according to the companies. It is unclear whether Barreyat will remain beyond that.
