B2B Affiliation: a closer look at Raketech and Acroud

For me, Christmas comes for me 9 times a year; once at Christmas, 4 times with Raketech’s quarterly earnings reports and another 4 more times with Acroud. I study these 2 companies religiously because both of them are my competitors for their B2B affiliation side of their business. I study these companies on social media and look for signals that might give me insights as to what these divisions in these companies are up to. 

I think by now they realize there’s this pesky scrappy startup called StatsDrone that’s trying to get in on this party.

Let’s rewind time a little bit and share what I think Covid has done for data and B2B companies like us. B2B has a nickname that is Boring 2 Boring. Thanks to Covid, B2B has gone from being boring to being the cool kid at the party that people want to talk to. This has happened outside of iGaming and within iGaming this signal was set when Acroud acquired Power Media Group which included assets like Matching Visions (iGaming affiliate network) and Voonix which is an affiliate stats aggregator and BI tool. 

Growing interest in affiliation tech and BI tools

I’ve had a chance to speak at the Next.io NYC conference on a panel dedicated to tracking. It has Tom Galanis as moderator with Assaf Dor of Cellxpert, Clemence Dujardin of MyAffiliates and Allan Petrilli of Intelitics and myself. If the Next.io editor adds a pic of that panel, I’m the one looking very professional with the button undone on my belly. 

All of us had a chance to chat through the few days and we all said the same thing. iGaming is a bit behind when it comes to tech and that people now actually want to talk to us. There is an interest in what we do as a topic that is exciting to them and they want our help to improve their businesses. 

Raketech analysis

Let’s start with Raketech. They had an impressive Q2 2023 revenue of EUR 17.6M which was up from EUR 11.3M from the same time a year ago. 

There are 2 things I notice about what Raketech does in the B2B affiliation space. 

1. AffiliationCloud
2. Sub-affiliation / Network

AffiliationCloud is a competitor to me but their business model and solution is unique. I believe the AffliationCloud is doing more than just processing affiliate stats but rather helping with payments, deals and just making life easier for affiliates. 

Since Q1 2022, the word ‘AffiliationCloud’ appears in the quarterly reports 

Word	Q1 2022	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1 2023	Q2	Q3
AffiliationCloud	5	10	8	5	1	1	5
SaaS	0	0	0	1	1	2	1
Sub-affiliation	0	0	9	9	8	11	11
Network	3	8	1	1	2	7	3
Sub-affiliation Revenue (000)	2.455M	1.988M	3.050M	3.493M	3.591M	6.294M	11.109M

There was a mention of 20 AffiliationCloud customers mentioned in Q3 2022 but it hasn’t been mentioned again.

Oscar Karlsten has been with Raketech for years but is now MD Sub-affiliation/AffiliationCloud for his role starting January 2023. Niklas Forsberg is also VP AffilationCloud sales also as of January 2023. 

The reports go back and forth discussion sub-affiliation revenue or network revenue but I believe these are the same thing. As you can see, the sub-affiliate or network revenue is substantial growing from 2.455M in Q1 2022 to 6.294M in Q2 2023. 

The reports talk about this part of their business being something the company wants to focus on and invest more into. Keep an eye out. 

Acroud Analysis

Acroud is very different than Raketech but the businesses in the B2B space are fairly similar. Voonix and Matching Visions are standalone products but I believe Matching Visions is powered by Voonix to pull the stats from all the affiliate programs. I would kinda know because I have affiliate networks asking me for help getting data from their partner programs too. 

When Acroud acquired the Power Media Group, it had an unknown earnout on top of up front money. What I think I know is the owners of Power Media Group seem to have shares in Acroud based on the public list of shareholders of Acroud. 

Let’s jump right into the numbers. 

Words	Q1 2021	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1 2022	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1 2023	Q2	Q3
RGU	367	380	393	398	401	422	395	419	416	428	429
NDC SaaS	17093	17093	21454	17060	14775	14402	12417	15485	15742	16544	18792
Revenue / RGU	$9315	$8996	$10918	$8573	$7369	$6826	$6287	$7391	$7568	$7731	$8761
Subscription revenue	191k	200k	202k	232k	238k	314k	275k	290k	291k	284k	$277k
Mention of Voonix	10	7	10	9	1	1	3	1	0	2	2
Mention of SaaS	34	25	70	66	53	52	33	30	33	31	30

RGU – number of affiliates in their network

NDC SaaS – New Depositing Customers via SaaS, likely Matching Visions

Subscription Rev – I think this is Voonix revenue

For the first time in Q2 2023, there was a mention of an earn-out regarding Power Media Group. It seems Power Media Group can buyback up to 40% of shares of their company. In the last page of the Q2 article there is mention of the assets obtained from Power Media Group could be available. (see page 26 here https://mb.cision.com/Main/11576/3815551/2222289.pdf)

What I read from this data is that Voonix has matured into a stable product generating around $100k/month in revenue. Matching Visions I think operates in a space that is somewhat crowded with the exception that Matching Visions has done a long history of serving affiliates. The number of affiliates seems to be increasing over time but the average revenue per affiliate has decreased slightly. 

B2B Affiliation

Affiliate networks and tools for affiliates are seemingly in demand. At the time of writing this, I’ve learned of a new affiliate network called Confident Network. 

At a time when a few affiliate programs have gone on a cutting spree of closing affiliate accounts, affiliates might need the protection of affiliate networks to ensure their accounts in fact don’t get closed.

Until then, it is business as usual for Raketech and Acroud as they prove a market exists for a focus on B2B in affiliate marketing.