Toy Story: World’s Largest Toy Maker, Mattel, Teams With Israel’s StartApp To Bring Barbie To Mobile

“I’m a Barbie girl in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!”

Those may just be song lyrics, but for Mattel, the world’s largest toy manufacturer, and the creator of the Barbie doll, life in plastic is indeed fantastic – and getting even better with a little help from an Israeli startup.

StartApp, an Israeli mobile platform that helps publishers monetize, distribute and advertise in apps and on mobile websites, announced a strategic collaboration with Mattel, in which StartApp will develop digital experiences for many of Mattel’s iconic brands, including Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels toy cars.

As part of the partnership with Mattel, and in conjunction with Apple’s recent iOS 10 launch, StartApp released two new iMessage apps for stickers and content, Barbie and Hot Wheels, for downloading to iPhones or iPads.

Barble Sticker. Courtesy

Under the multi-year agreement, StartApp will become Mattel’s premier licensee to create digital stickers, emojis, wallpapers, gifs, mobile app themes, avatars, memes, and related apps for a number of Mattel’s global consumer brands.

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“We are exceptionally excited to join forces with Mattel to help them reimagine their iconic brands for today’s world,” Gil Dudkiewicz, StartApp’s Co-founder and CEO said in a statement. “Through this partnership, we will draw upon our extensive experience in the mobile industry to expand on Mattel’s efforts to bring their brands to a new and exponentially more connected generation.”

Helping companies understand their users

StartApp, which was founded in 2010 by Dudkiewicz and Ran Avidan, is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, China, Russia, Israel, Brazil and India. The company offers a variety of products including rich media ads, exit ads, 3DApp Wall, text ads, 360 ads, interstitials and display ads. StartApp reaches over 350 million users and is embedded in over 150,000 Android and iOS apps.

StartApp’s full suite of mobile technologies helps companies better understand their end-users and execute multi-layered mobile strategies to create a unique experience for each them. StartApp partners with over 280,000 applications, including the King company’s ever-popular mobile game Candy Crush, working with a database of over 1.5 billion mobile users worldwide. To date, the company has raised a total of $7.3 million in funding from Ascent Venture Partners, Cedar Fund and TPY Capital.

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Mattel: A toy giant

Founded in 1945, Mattel’s portfolio of global consumer brands includes American Girl®, Barbie®, Fisher-Price®, Hot Wheels®, Monster High® and Thomas & Friends®, among many others. Mattel also creates lines and products made in collaboration with leading entertainment and technology companies including Disney-Pixar. With a global workforce of approximately 31,000, Mattel operates in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 nations.

Photos: Courtesy