Aonic Acquires Prime Insights for More Than $250 Million
– 3 min read
Aonic, a global group of tech and gaming companies, has completed the acquisition of research technology firm Prime Insights for a total transaction value in excess of $250 million. This is Aonic's largest acquisition to date. The plan is to create an industry-leading rewards platform.
Prime Insights is joining Aonic's existing portfolio of firms to create a global rewards and data platform with over 50 million consumers, 12 owned and operated consumer brands and revenues of approximately $300 million per year. Through its Exmox (from Germany) platform and its recent investment in Mega Fortuna, Aonic already operates a gaming-focused discovery, testing and loyalty platform of significant size, driving user acquisition and insights for mobile game developers.
Aonic: "The transaction marks a bold union of two category leaders in global rewards platforms, with both Exmox and Prime Insights delivering more than 80% organic growth per annum over the past two years. Prime Insights, Exmox and Mega Fortuna pride themselves on a growing number of high-profile and recurring B2B clients, primarily attributed to data quality, user experience and a technology-first approach. By joining forces, the firms double the scale of their platforms and enable both client bases - mobile game developers and consumer insights researchers alike - to achieve superior reach, insights and engagement."
In recent years, Prime Insights has emerged as one of the fastest-growing companies in the $142 billion global research technology industry (according to Aonic). It operates multiple mobile and web platforms through which millions of users can earn real money by completing online surveys. Founded in 2022 by serial technology entrepreneur Benjamin Ritzka, Prime Insights is led by a team of around 120 people working across 17 countries. Ritzka will continue to lead Prime Insights as CEO and has reinvested a significant portion of the proceeds from the transaction into Aonic, becoming one of the group's largest shareholders.
Aonic CEO and co-founder Paul Schempp: "Prime Insights has rewritten the rules in programmatic data collection for consumer insights as a true disruptor in the highly competitive world of research technology. It is rare to come across such a brilliant tech entrepreneur as Benjamin, and as powerful a team as Prime Insights, so we couldn't be happier to partner up. This transaction marks a major step in our vision of becoming a dominant global player. Bringing together scale, data and technology will be the key to sharpening our competitive edge. We welcome Benjamin and his team with highest regards - they deserve every accolade."
Benjamin Ritzka, CEO and Founder of Prime Insights: "The growth path we achieved with Prime Insights over recent years is unprecedented in our industry. A transaction of this scale is an amazing validation of everything we’ve built. A huge thanks to my fantastic team at Prime Insights. I couldn't have thought of a better match than with Aonic and I'm a big believer in our shared vision. We share the same culture, mindset and ambition. The two firms are extremely complementary, which will allow us to double down on adding unparalleled value to our clients and users. Our team is excited to join Aonic in building the global market leader of rewards platforms."
Exmox CEO Caglar Eger: "There are huge synergies between our work at Exmox in rewarded user acquisition for gaming clients and the rewarded survey platforms offered by Prime Insights. Prime Insights' edge in data collection and analysis will allow us to turbo-charge engagement for gaming clients, while our scale and focus on user engagement will significantly improve data quality and reach for the consumer insights industry. We’re extremely excited to begin the work together!"
Oberon Securities served as the financial advisor to Prime Insights through this transaction to Aonic. DLA Piper served as legal advisor to Aonic. EY served as financial and tax adviser to Aonic.
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