Dare to Scale Alumnus Prospecto is Acquired by Offerista Group

The new year has started with a bang for Oggy Popov, the founder of Prospecto Group – he just sold his company to the German Offerista Group! Prospecto is an online platform that enables consumers to discover all the retail offers they need and was founded by Oggy in 2013. The acquiring company operates in the same space and has a wide reach that greatly complement’s Prospecto’s current geographical spread and offering.

Just a few months ago, Oggy completed Endeavor’s Dare to Scale growth program and was happy to share the news with us, as well as indulge our curiosity on the topic.

At what point of its evolution is Prospecto and why did you decide to sell the company?

We`ve put in a lot of great work in the last couple of years in growing our business with retailers and brands in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. Particularly in our home market with Broshura.bg we are now proud to work for virtually the whole retail sector. Due to this success, we were actively looking for our next expansion steps and in order to make them happen, we needed to attract partners. There were various options available including VCs, bank loans, angel investors and strategic investors. In the meantime, we had a really great contact with Offerista Group, who develop the exact same product and have a strong vision to build a European champion in retail marketing. We recognized their ambition as our own and decided to join our forces and teams for faster execution of this vision.

What advice can you give to other companies that are considering M&A?

I believe it strongly depends on the companies. In our case, we were 2 companies in the same business, working on the same products and services, so there is a great efficiency opportunity in merging and working together. Other companies might merge because the products add additional value to each other, in which case the risk is higher due to uncertainty whether the products will in fact fit in the long run. In both scenarios, it is essential that there is chemistry between the teams and a common vision moving forward. After all, you are about to work together for a greater success and you have to know well who you are going to work with, what is their vision and motivation.

What is ahead for you now?

We are proud to have put Sofia on the European retail marketing map and we are going to continue growing our local team. We currently have pen positions in Development, Sales/Client Management and Marketing. In CEE, we will expand operations with our new offices in Hungary and Romania, where we see a great opportunity to become market leaders. As a group, our mission is to become a European leader in retail marketing, so we are actively looking for new partners to join the group in various markets across the continent.

Given your recent participation in the Dare to Scale growth program, what takeaways do you believe you can implement in your new role?

The Dare to Scale program gave me the opportunity to reflect on a lot of the challenges I am facing as a founder and manager. Some of the takeaways that stuck with me were related to managing my team, hiring and keeping superstars, but also about product-market fit and go-to-market strategies. I strongly encourage founders to apply for the second wave of the program and seize the opportunity to be mentored by some of the most successful entrepreneurs. Their hard-won advice is pure gold and believe me, every founder can benefit from being around such an amazing group of mentors.

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We at Endeavor are glad to work with such driven leaders such as Oggy and wish him and his team much success on the new journey!