Third Acquisition and $110M round for European Martech Positive Group

As a key player in digital communication for companies for more than 20 years, Positive Group (formerly Sarbacane Group), parent company of Mailify and rapidmail announced a $110M fundraising from EMZ and banking institutions, and at the same time a third acquisition in 2 years with the purchase of the company Marketing 1BY1.

After IDI in 2020, the European fund EMZ enters the capital of the group to support and finance its development. Mathieu Tarnus, founder and CEO, remains the majority shareholder of the group. The group’s turnover, which has increased by three times in 3 years, will approach $30M this year. The ambition is to keep up this pace and reach a turnover of $100M by 2026.

To facilitate the distinction between the development and ambition of the group and the historical activity of Sarbacane, the group is changing its name to Groupe Positive. Sarbacane and Mailify as well as their sisters rapidmail and Datananas, will continue to exist as brands and subsidiaries of the group.

This fundraising opens a new phase in the development of the Positive group, which was founded in 2001 around its core software Mailify. Over the years, the publisher has developed a galaxy of solutions dedicated to digital business communication: email and SMS (marketing and transactional), creation of automated workflows, conversational marketing with livechat and chatbot, sales engagement, etc.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Heidi Arkinstall, CMO at G-P

The Positive Group intends to become an entrepreneurial platform for digital innovation by relying on its strengths: advanced but easy-to-use technologies, a premium support service tailored to the needs of all its customers, and a strong local presence in Europe.

The group currently supports 25,000 customers, mainly SMEs and mid-market companies, but also large groups and public institutions.

With Marketing 1BY1, the Positive Group acquires data expertise. Marketing 1BY1 develops a CDP (Customer Data Platform). While the Sarbacane, rapidmail and Datananas solutions enable data to be activated through multichannel campaigns, Marketing 1BY1 is positioned upstream, at the data flow consolidation stage.

Without denying its historical approach and its premium support for SMEs, Mailify has become a complementary partner for public institutions and large accounts. The acquisition of Marketing 1BY1 meets the growing need of these companies to set up an ultra-personalized customer approach without having to implement heavy and complex solutions.

Marketing Technology News: How Have Apple’s Changes to Privacy Impacted Your Advertising on Facebook and Instagram?