Iliad’s Play acquires control of Redge Technologies

Iliad Group-owned Polish service provider Play Group has acquired 92.5% of the shares of Polish technology provider Redge Technologies. The residual 7.5% of the company’s share capital remains with Przemysław Frasunek, CEO and co-founder.

Redge Technologies is a leading provider of OTT and edge computing technologies in Central Europe. Its flagship technology, Redge Media, is an OTT platform available in PaaS and On-Prem models.

Redge counts Play, along with Warner Bros Discovery group’s TVN, the TV3 Baltics group, Telewizja Polska, Ringier Axel Springer Polska, Vectra, Canal+ and NASK among its customers.

Redge Technologies was founded in 2007 as part of the Atende S.A. group. In 2020, the company became an independent entity following a management buyout, assisted by Custodia Capital led by Wojciech Domański and Tomasz Potapczuk. In 2021, Redge Technologies had revenues in excess of 7,5 million EUR.

Following the acquisition by Play, the management team will remain intact, Redge said. The company will continue to operate as a separate entity and will continue with its product, sales and marketing strategies, both on the domestic market and internationally.

At the same time, Redge said it will extend its cooperation with the Play Group to include, among other, further development of the PlayNOW platform.

The Play Group was advised by Rymarz Zdort  and Grant Thornton. The sellers were advised by Rothschild & Co with legal advice provided by Dentons Poland.

“Joining the Play Group opens a new chapter in the company’s history and is consistent with our telecommunications DNA. For 15 years, we have supported telecom operators and broadcasters in their OTT services. The technology developed by us has become the foundation of several major deployments in the region. The cooperation with Play will yield – most of all – synergies in telecommunications and a great chance to further develop our CDN, but also other services based on edge computing. We want to keep on setting the trends and standards in the industry,” said  Frasunek.

“The Play Group has acquired the most prized asset in video technology in Central Europe. Following the spin-off from the Atende group, Redge has been thoroughly transformed: the company has become laser-focused on its unique and most valuable video streaming technology, built up its operational resources, and accelerated investment in its technology assets. As Custodia Capital, we are glad that we were in the position to assist the management team of Redge – Przemek, Jan and Tomek – in such dynamic growth, and that the company has now become a part of the global capital group, which is uniquely positioned to accelerate the Redge’s growth,” said Tomasz Potapczuk, co-founder of Custodia Capital and vice-president of the former Supervisory Board of Redge Technologies.