October 14, 2013

Israeli mobile analytics company Onavo has announced its sale to Facebook. The deal is being reported to be worth between $100 million-$200 million.

Guy Rosen, Onavo

Onavo is one of Tel Aviv’s hottest startups. It developed the award-winning Onavo mobile utility app and Onavo Insights, the first mobile market intelligence service based on real engagement data.

Even bigger news than the acquisition is that Facebook is planning to open its first R&D center in Israel, at Onavo’s headquarters. Under the deal, Facebook has agreed that Onavo will keep its Israeli offices and its 30 employees.

One of the reasons the hyped Facebook-Waze deal fell through a few months back, according to reports, was due to the American giant’s insistence on moving the crowdsourcing navigation application to the US.

This is Facebook’s third Israeli acquisition. When it acquired Snaptu and Face.com, it transferred the employees to Silicon Valley.

“We’re excited to join their team, and hope to play a critical role in reaching one of Internet.org’s most significant goals – using data more efficiently, so that more people around the world can connect and share. When the transaction closes, we plan to continue running the Onavo mobile utility apps as a standalone brand. As always, we remain committed to the privacy of people who use our application and that commitment will not change,” Guy Rosen, Onavo’s Co-Founder & CEO, wrote on the company’s blog.

“We are incredibly proud of the talented team we have assembled, and, recognizing this, Onavo’s Tel-Aviv office will remain open for business and will become Facebook’s new Israeli office.”