Mitgo Ventures, an investment arm of leading MarTech company, Mitgo Group, has invested in next-generation cashback service Qoala, as part of its recently-launched global Publisher Investments program.
It comes amid plans by Mitgo Ventures to invest at least 15% of the program’s $20 million capital in publishers from the MENA region. As one of the program’s early investments, the decision reflects the significant potential of Qoala, with its browser extension reaching up to 150,000 users in LATAM and Europe, to date.
The service, which combines cashback with one-click checkout, has been expanding rapidly through partnerships with prominent brands such as Adidas, HP, Nike, IKEA, Vans, Booking.com, ASOS, AliExpress and others.
In addition to capital and expertise, Qoala will gain the opportunity to work with an expanded number of advertisers who already partner with Mitgo Group in Europe, LATAM and MENA region. The group currently has contracts with more than 30,000 brands and online stores.
Explaining the move, Max Volokhov, Managing Partner at Mitgo Ventures, said: Qoala is great at combining both the B2C component and value to the user, as well as focus on B2B and great adaptability to large clients and their audiences. Our 10+ years of experience at the intersection of ecommerce and marketing allows us to offer dozens of ideas to accelerate their growth and increase revenue per user. And given the experience of our own startup studio and venture fund, we know 99 mistakes that most often ruin young projects, and will help Qoala avoid them,”
The investment in Qoala will be the first in a series of many under the Publisher Investments program launched by Mitgo in 2023. The firm has received more than 100 applications from the MENA region and currently in the negotiation phase.
Aimed primarily at projects working in the FinTech, smart shopping, gig economy, generative AI, HRtech, MarTech, Influencer and no-ads sectors, the program intends to help publishers solve one of the biggest issues they face: finance gaps and cash flow problems that stand in the way of growth.
According to the firm, applicants must currently – or plan to through investment – earn more than 50% of their revenue from “cost per lead”, “cost per click”, “cost per sale” and other performance-based models, or have the potential to become a tech partner for affiliate publishers. The investment capital of $20 million over the next two years could increase depending on the number of promising applications from publishers, Mitgo Ventures added.
“Together, we are poised to redefine the cashback landscape, leveraging our combined strengths to enhance user experiences and extend our services to over one million users in the coming year”, Rafael Rubio, co-founder and co-CEO of Qoala, said.
