News

Kidjo, the US edu-tainment platform, joins the Cafeyn Group

Date: 26 Oct 2021

Category: Portfolio news

Kidjo, the US edu-tainment platform publisher and creator of editorial content, games and stories for children, joins the Cafeyn Group, (“Cafeyn”), the leading European press platform.

After the acquisitions of miLibris and Blendle last year, this marks Cafeyn’s third investment and is an important milestone for the Group in its international expansion and content diversification strategy.

Cafeyn has over 2.5 million users, and the growth facilitated by this transaction will further cement its leading position, adding a further 1.5 million users from Kidjo's platform. Following the success of previous acquisitions, this partnership will enable Cafeyn to diversify its content offering and accelerate its internationalisation ambitions, as Kidjo is already present in the US, Spain, Russia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco and France.

Cafeyn's strategy focuses on developing new formats and ways of consuming information (Smart reading, editorial selections and, more recently, celebrity collections), supporting access to topical news and entertaining content, and transforming the company from a digital kiosk to a multi-media press platform. The acquisition will also allow Cafeyn to expand its value proposition towards a more family-oriented audience and a younger demographic, whose parents already use its platform.

Founded in 2016 by Martin Poix, Kidjo initial development was founded by Otium Venture and several French Business Angels. Kidjo offers a wide range of content, including narrative stories and edu-tainment games, aimed at a young audience, from 2 to 7 years old. Today, Cafeyn's audience profile is mainly concentrated on users between 35 and 45 years old, predominantly young couples. Martin Poix will retain his position as CEO of Kidjo and directly report to Ari Assuied, Founder and CEO of Cafeyn.

"At Cafeyn, we have a strong ambition to give everyone the opportunity to keep themselves informed and educated, by offering a unique experience and unlimited access to information. Kidjo's model shares the same values and entrepreneurial roots as Cafeyn's, offering diverse, quality content. The combination of our technological assets will allow us to be better equipped to provide outstanding service for our customers."

Ari Assuied

President - Cafeyn Group

"We are delighted to join forces with Cafeyn. This collaboration marks the start of an exciting new chapter in Kidjo’s history and brings both companies one step closer to achieving our common goal – becoming the European leader in news and content streaming. Multiple opportunities for the development of new features and content will arise from our partnership. In an era where content platforms must constantly reinvent themselves, this union will allow us to accelerate our growth, both in France and internationally, and provide the most attractive family offer on the market, with unparalleled access to quality content."

Martin Poix

CEO - Kidjo

"We have backed with lots of enthusiasm Kidjo based on the premise that Kidjo product would provide kids with a safe and high quality educational and fun content to help them grow. We are very happy and proud to see Martin and Kidjo move forward on this mission with the backing of a leading player in the booming digital press industry."

Bruno Raillard

GM - Otium Capital

Advisors to the buyer: Julien Sanciet (Argos), Antoine Azria (Koryphe Finance), Vincent Lazimi (DWF), Antoine Jacquemart (Akheos)

Advisors to the sellers: Matthieu Mora (Acetis), Stephane Huten (Hogan Lovells)

About Cafeyn

‍The Cafeyn Group is the leading press platform in Europe, offering seamless access to local and international content in different formats on all devices. Cafeyn has more than 2.5 million users across France, Belgium, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Italy, Canada, Ireland and the United States and has established collaborations with more than 500 publishers and content providers worldwide offering more than 2 500 newspapers, magazines titles, newsfeeds and other pure player content brands, like Business Week, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Paris Match, Libération, Elle, de Volkskrant, Süddeutsche Zeitung. Since 2006, the company has scaled rapidly both organically and via acquisitions of companies like MiLibris (FR) and Blendle (NL) with offices in Paris, London, Tangier, Montreal and Utrecht and employs over 200 people. In addition to its Cafeyn and Blendle direct to consumer brands, it is distributing through multiple long term partnerships with Albert Heijn, Bouygues Telecom, Canal+, Cdiscount, Free, O2, SFR, Tango, Telus, Three and Vodafone. The platform rates best-in-class (>4.5* on avg) continuously adding new features like Audio and Collections to offer the best user experience. Find out more at cafeyn.co.

Cafeyn

About Kidjo

‍Founded in 2016 by Martin Poix, Kidjo brings several edu-tainment applications operating on a subscription basis, with content aimed at children aged 2 to 7. Based on the observation that there were no applications really dedicated to each of the uses (video, reading, etc.) for children, its founder created Kidjo, which today brings together more than 3,500 multimedia contents (videos, games, narrative stories) to entertain children in a playful and intelligent way. With an ergonomics specially designed for its target, available in 5 languages, Kidjo has already satisfied more than one million parents and children worldwide. The company, which is on a human scale (a dozen employees), includes developers, designers and specialists in children's education. All of them combine their passions, skills and experience to offer an accomplished product, rich in content and with ergonomics that are highly adapted to children. Kidjo has been pursuing the same ambition for 5 years: to offer the most complete and qualitative entertainment and education applications on the market to young children, guaranteeing them moments of wonder, joy and learning. Over the years, the company has been able to make its mark via the various mobile stores, but also through numerous strategic partnerships with telecommunications operators or more recently with several retail players, enabling Kidjo to be 100% natively embedded in tablets intended for children, but also in smart TVs.