American Express has acquired Sometrics, a virtual currency firm that has worked with online publishers like Bigpoint and Nexon, for $30 million. The company intends to use Sometrics’ expertise to augment and expand its Amex Serve digital payments platform. With this move, Serve customers will be able to purchase virtual currency for hundreds of game titles while still participating in loyalty programs at various merchants.
“American Express is a 160 year old company that’s innovating quickly with a closed-loop system,” Sometrics CEO and founder Ian Swanson told VentureBeat. “We’ve been in communication with Amex for a while and, from the beginning, we were incredibly impressed with their leadership. It’s rare to find a large company that prides culture and innovation. We asked every one of our employees and investors if they would want to do this — be a part of Amex — and they said absolutely.”
“We are in a mode of building out our capabilities within the Serve platform,” says Jason Hogg, president of Amex’s Serve Enterprises. “We were really impressed with the management team at Sometrics. This is an intellectual acquisition for us as well.”
Sometrics will continue to work with its current gaming partners.
