Cathie Wood's Ark Says Aarki Acquisition Should Accelerate Skillz's International Expansion Goals

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management believes Skillz Inc’s SKLZ purchase of Aarki, an adtech demand-side platform (DSP), will boost the mobile gaming company’s international expansion goals.

Skillz shares soared as much as 30% last Wednesday after announcing a $150 million in cash and stock acquisition deal.

The New York-based hedge fund Ark said Aarki has significant exposure in the United Kingdom, India, and South Korea.

Ark owns over 22.66 million shares in Skillz divided between Ark Innovation ETF ARKK and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW, worth about $481.1 million as of Friday's close.

Skillz is a mobile games platform that enables competitive eSports-style play that hosts billions of casual esports tournaments annually.

See Also: Why Cathie Wood Is Bullish On Skillz

Aarki says it engages in more than 5 trillion advertising auctions monthly with machine learning algorithms and data engines that help advertisers maximize customer reach and acquisition. 

The acquisition should also lower Skillz’ user acquisition costs and boost monetization of the existing monthly active users (MAUs), Ark Invest said in a note. 

The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2021.

Price Action: Skillz shares closed 4.33% lower at $20.31 on Friday.