Groupe Bruxelles Lambert
24 Avenue Marnix, Brussels, 1000, Belgium
Overview
GBL is a holding company listed since 1956 whose primary objective is to create value for its shareholders. GBL strives to develop a diversified portfolio of quality, focused on a targeted number of global industrial and services companies, leaders on their market, in which it plays an active role as a professional shareholder over the long term. GBL invests and divests depending on the companies’ development and on market opportunities in order to achieve its objective of value creation while maintaining a solid financial structure. GBL’s dividend policy seeks to achieve a sound balance between providing an attractive yield and achieving growth in adjusted net assets.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 5
Sector focus
- Financial Services
Investment portfolio
- Voodoo
Led · Equity · Aug 2021
Voodoo develops hypercasual mobile games—short, easy-to-learn titles designed for brief play sessions. Founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter and based in Paris, the company reports over 5 billion downloads and about 300 million monthly users. The business is considering moves upmarket while continuing to focus on fast-play mobile experiences. CEO Alexandre Yazdi said the new investment will fuel product expansion toward gaming and broader entertainment apps and solidify technological infrastructure. Financially, the company was valued at €1.7 billion in the transaction that drew new capital from Groupe Bruxelles Lambert. Existing backers include Goldman Sachs and Tencent. The deal is expected to close in Q3. Voodoo publishes hyper-casual mobile games and distributes both its own titles and third-party games. The company reports about 300 million monthly active users and has amassed 3.7 billion downloads on iOS and Android to date. Voodoo generated €360 million ($428 million) in revenue last year and operates an ad-driven monetization model. The team totals roughly 250 staff, with two-thirds in France and the remainder across the U.K., Turkey, Japan, Singapore and other countries. Voodoo sees the Tencent partnership as a gateway into APAC, aiming to improve Android distribution in the region, leverage local influencers for virality, and eventually open a China office. Alexandre Yazdi and Laurent Ritter cofounded the company; Yazdi will remain the largest shareholder and management will retain control of the group. Voodoo is a Paris-based developer and publisher of highly casual mobile games, founded in 2013 by Alexandre Yazdi. The company partners with over 400 studios worldwide to release free-access titles on the Apple Store and Google Play; emblematic games include Paper.io, Dune! and Snake vs Block. Voodoo reports over 150 million monthly active users, reached about 300 million downloads in 2017 and expects one billion downloads this year. It received an approx. $200m investment from Goldman Sachs through its West Street Capital Partners VII fund. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate global growth and to more than double its staff to 150 by the end of the year, hiring computer engineers and managers to develop new messaging tools and make better use of the data it collects.