Kik acquires chat app maker Rounds for up to $80 million

The Canadian-made chat app Kik has just completed an acquisition of video app maker Rounds, marking its second major acquisition since 2014.

The Israel-based app maker claims to have approximately 40 million registered users. In contrast, Kik now boasts over 300 million registered users and growing, with its main demographic being teenagers and youth.

While neither company has placed a dollar value on the acquisition, a local media company in Israel reports that the amount ranges between $60 and $80 million.

According to documents sent to MobileSyrup reegarding the acquisition, Kik’s interest in Rounds stems from its desire to integrate more video into its platform.

Rounds was founded in 2009 by Dany Fishel and Ilan Leibovich, and allows up to 12 people to video chat while experiencing things together like watching a video or or playing games. 

All of Rounds’ employees will join Kik, bringing their headcount to 165. Kik’s engineering and product centre in Toronto will focus on chatbot development and will be based out of the MaRS centre.

[source]Kik[/source][via]TechCrunch[/via]