Nottingham payment platform firm sold in £22m deal

Nottingham payment platform software specialist Tebex has been sold to Israel-based app and monetisation firm Overwolf in a deal worth over £22m.

Tebex is known for its work across the gaming sector, including longstanding relationships with Minecraft and Rust. The firm was founded in Nottingham in 2011 by Lee McNeil to create new revenue streams for gamers and offers an end to end payment solution for content creators, enabling them to have a market place for transacting.

Led by CEO and Cco-founder Uri Marchand, Overwolf raised $75m in Series D funding in November, with backing from Insight Partners, Intel Capital and Liberty Technology and already supports nearly 100,000 creators and 31 million monthly active users.

Lee McNeil, managing director of Tebex, said: “Joining Overwolf enables Tebex to expand its offerings to more game servers, publishers, and more importantly allows us to further grow the communities of our existing game servers. Their commitment to helping us grow the game server industry will push Tebex into our next growth chapter”

Uri Marchand, CEO of Overwolf said: “As long-time champions of in-game app creators and mod authors, we are excited to work with a new creator category–server owners–to continue to build new experiences in the industry.

“By combining our industry-leading operations with Tebex’s technology and passionate team, we’ll be able to reach more creators and help them earn a sustainable income for their work.”

Irwin Mitchell associate solicitor Matt Smith, together with corporate partner Nick Dawson and solicitor Aidan Clucas, advised Tebex’s shareholders on the deal

Matt Smith an associate solicitor in the Irwin Mitchell corporate team, said: “As a firm we have an established reputation in the gaming and software space. It was a pleasure to help Tebex take the next step in their journey.

“From small beginnings, Tebex and Overwolf have shown what can be achieved with the right software and services. This deal will allow both firms to do more of what they do best, supporting existing household names in the sector and offering new developers the means to develop their own businesses and ideas and bring them to a wider global audience.

“There is huge potential in this market and two such names joining forces can only be good thing for the long term interests of both parties.”

Corporate finance advice on the deal was given to the shareholders of Tebex by the Simon Heath and Matt Croker at Heligan Group.