UK-based mobile app management company Airnow has acquired Spanish mobile growth firm Lab Cave for an undisclosed amount.

Headquartered in Madrid, Lab Cave specialises in App Store optimisation, monetisation, and user acquisition. It’s current team of 30 has adapted a hybrid working model as it grows to handle larger scale projects in the mobile games industry.

Lab Cave will continue to be led by current CEO Luis Bertó who took over in August 2020. Going forward, Bertó will work closely with the Airnow board to drive the new direction of Lab Cave, including further investment in new tools, training, and team scaling.

A leading light

"The Lab Cave team is extremely excited about this new chapter," said Lab Cave CEO Luis Bertó. "Airnow wants to invest and grow alongside us, while allowing Lab Cave the space to use our knowledge to drive the business forward to achieve our shared goals.

"This will allow our publishing division to focus on external titles, get more games into the mobile market with proper support, and help the hundreds of talented studios who are so close to having a hit but just need some assistance. Ultimately, we want to become the key hub for worldwide developers, and with Airnow by our side, we know we can achieve this goal."

Airnow co-founder and COO James Eggleston added: "We’re delighted to welcome Luis and the Lab Cave team to the Airnow family. Lab Cave has used the Airnow Data tool for several years now, and this is the next natural step between two businesses that are passionate about the incredibly creative and rapidly growing mobile app industry."

"Lab Cave is a leading light in the mobile gaming market, and is set to bring fresh content into Airnow’s rapidly expanding ecosystem, which exists to enable global publishers to understand their competition, acquire users, increase revenue and maximise security in a single place. In turn, Lab Cave will make full use of Airnow’s extensive technology, data, stronger toolsets, funding and structure to strengthen its own capabilities."

In other UK acquisition news, gaming outfit Team17 acquired indie dev studio The Label, developers of What the Golf?, for an initial $24 million which could extend to $40 million.