Mumbrella, a media startup focused on APAC’s marketing industry, gets acquired

Inside baseball klaxon: media writing about media story incoming:: Mumbrella, the Australia-based media company, has been sold by its founders to U.S./APAC events company Diversified Communications.

Mumbrella operates media and marketing industry-focused websites for Australia and Asia, an events business and a database service called The Source. It has 33 staff across four offices. The company started out in Australia nine years ago and it has expanded into Southeast Asia with an office in Singapore. Now, post-acquisition it looks like it has ambitions to go further.

The size of the deal is undisclosed, but founder and content director Tim Burrowes said it “guarantees Mumbrella remains an independent voice and in time, I hope, will give Mumbrella the opportunity to become a global brand.”

“I’d describe it as a good price. But also one that won’t see us wanting to take an early retirement,” he added, revealing also that other would-be suitors included traditional media companies.

Burrowes said the business itself hit $1 million in profit during its last financial year with total revenue reaching $7 million. Its flagship Mumbrella360 conference, he added, grossed $2 million split equally across ticket sales and sponsorship revenue.

The deal marks an interesting exit for niche media in the Asia Pacific region. Over the past year or so, we’ve seen a range of media companies that also run events raise funding including (but not limited to) Tech In Asia and E27. Yet at this point, exits are few and far between. We’ll see if Mumbrella’s deal is a one-off or a sign of what might come in 2018.