BeReal is being acquired.
The startup social media app, which soared in popularity during the height of the pandemic and struggled to find long-term footing with users, has been purchased by Voodoo Games.
Voodoo, a French gaming company, said it valued BeReal at 500 million euros. Alexandre Yazdi, CEO of Voodoo, told BI that the acquisition of BeReal closed Tuesday and is a combination of cash and stock.
Business Insider first reported that BeReal was looking to be acquired. The company was struggling to grow user numbers and had less than a year of runway left from previous rounds of funding.
As part of the sale to Voodoo, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat is leaving the company after a transition period. He is being replaced by Aymeric Roffé, who is currently CEO of Wizz, a social media app owned by Voodoo.
Voodoo's plan for BeReal
Yazdi sees a lot of potential in BeReal and said the 500 million euro valuation is "a good price because we believe we can grow really into a major iconic social network."
Within the next two years, Yazdi expects BeReal to be around 100 million daily active users, quadruple the 25 million DAU's the platform currently sees.
"100 million users is a major social network," Yazdi said. "The long-term goal is really to grow BeReal into a major social network and be in the hands of everyone in the world."
BeReal will quickly roll out new products, like more ways to post, video options and a chat feature, Yazdi said.
Keeping "good talent," and doing ads
While the CEO would not specify any plans for layoffs to BeReal's relatively small staff of about 60 employees, Voodoo wants "to keep all the good talent, the ones that are willing to work with us the way we want to work, the ones that are adapted to our culture and our strategy."
That strategy includes implementing a "sustainable business model" as quickly as possible. One of the first steps is to implement advertising on BeReal, a first for the company, which has marketed itself as focused on authenticity above all else.
"Today, we are going to focus on the short-term, so on advertising," Yadzi said. "Advertising is a proven model for social networks, and subscriptions is not. So we really believe we could be well suited to integrate an authentic format of ads that are perfectly integrated in the feed. Right. So it's a no-brainer to do that ASAP. "
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