The three-year-old company has developed apps including Count, which reports how much mobile data individual apps use on smartphone devices, as well as security programs like Protect, and Extend, which is a way for phone owners to save on their mobile data use.

Announced in a company blog post this weekend, Onavo co-founder and CEO Guy Rosen (pictured) linked the acquisition of his company to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s spearheading of the Internet.org campaign, which seeks to make the internet affordable and accessible to all.

Rosen said: “We’re excited to join [the Facebook] team, and hope to play a critical role in reaching one of Internet.org’s most significant goals – using data more efficiently, so that more people around the world can connect and share.

“When the transaction closes, we plan to continue running the Onavo mobile utility apps as a standalone brand. As always, we remain committed to the privacy of people who use our application and that commitment will not change.”

As well as keeping their utility apps running, Onavo’s office will remain open and will become Facebook’s new base in Israel.