Announcing Our $58M Series B: Powering the Direct-to-Consumer Revolution in Mobile App Monetization

Appcharge is my second company, but I’ve never been part of a wave quite like this one.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve grown 14× year over year, processed over $500 million in transactions, and helped more than 100 mobile games reclaim ownership of their revenue and player relationships.

That includes some of the biggest and most ambitious publishers in the world, teams that are transforming how monetization works in an industry that was locked into app store rules for over a decade.

Of course, building a startup is never straightforward. Especially not in the middle of one of the most unpredictable, high-pressure market environments mobile gaming has seen.

We’ve been fortunate to build Appcharge in a way that gives us speed, discipline, and flexibility. Thanks to strong product-market fit and incredible execution by a team with deep roots in mobile gaming, we were already well-capitalized and growing fast. But when the right partners show up at the right time, and your market hits an inflection point, you double down.

Today, I’m proud to announce that we’ve raised a $58 million Series B funding round led by IVP, with participation from Playrix, as well as existing investors such as Creandum, Play Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Smilegate Investment, Moneta Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures and Corundum.

This round was preempted and significantly oversubscribed, a reflection of the traction we’ve built and the belief that we’re building the monetization infrastructure for one of the biggest shifts mobile games have seen in years.

The direct-to-consumer platform built for the mobile monetization revolution

When we started Appcharge, we believed that mobile games needed more than just a clever workaround to app store commissions. They needed a way to own their business.

At the time, web stores were gaining attention. Publishers were experimenting, but for many in the industry, the idea of going direct-to-consumer still felt niche, risky, or too early.

That has changed.

Policy updates, legal rulings, and the success of early adopters have opened the floodgates. Our research into web store adoption rates - almost a year ago, before we raised our Series A - showed over 70% of top grossing games operated web stores. That figure is significantly higher now.

Publishers now have real, scalable alternatives to app store billing, on iOS, Android, browser, and beyond. And they’re no longer asking whether to go direct. They’re asking how to do it well.  

That’s what we’ve tried to solve, building the infrastructure that makes DTC monetization work at scale:

• Pixel perfect web stores for out-of-app purchases, that feel like extensions of the game itself
• Payment Links for iOS that bypasses Apple’s commission while preserving the in-game UX
• AppDirect, a lightweight distribution and versioning platform for sideloaded Android apps
• Industry-leading monetization tools, such as real-time segmentation that personalizes the web store UX for every player
• Battle-tested web store features such as Rolling Offers, which we’ve seen drive 56% of store revenue in a single day
• Comprehensive Merchant of Record coverage, including fraud prevention, dispute management, global tax compliance, and more
   

We’ve also partnered with AppsFlyer to deliver full-funnel attribution, so publishers can track DTC spend all the way from UA through to web store conversions. And we recently launched a partnership with Dots.eco, enabling players to contribute to real-world sustainability efforts with every purchase.

This is the foundation of a long-term ecosystem. One that puts publishers back in control and gives players more flexibility and value.

Why raise now?

Because the stakes have never been higher. We’re in the midst of a fundamental shift in how mobile games operate.

• Regulation is opening up the platforms
• The zeitgeist has changed: DTC is the new standard
• User acquisition is more expensive than ever post-IDFA
• Developers are prioritizing lean teams and efficiency - they’re cutting teams that are not core business.

The convergence of these factors, and the growth of our business, is why we’re investing in scale. This round allows us to:

• Grow our team across engineering, CX, product, and compliance
   
• Accelerate roadmap features
   
• Strengthen our infrastructure to support even more global publishers

Choosing the right partners

Bringing in new capital is easy. Bringing in the right partners is what matters.

IVP is one of the most respected growth investors in the world. They’ve backed category leaders like Supercell, Zynga, Niantic, Dream Games, Slack, Perplexity, and Discord. They understand consumer ecosystems, infrastructure, and what it takes to build enduring platforms, and their track record is incredible - over 130 IPOs out of 400 investments.

Karthik Ramakrishnan, Eric Liaw, and the IVP team saw what we were building long before this round, and when it was time to raise, they moved fast.

We’re also proud to have participation from our strategic partners, Playrix and Smilegate. As leading global game publishers, they bring invaluable perspective on what matters most to developers and players.

And the continued support from Creandum, Play Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Moneta VC, BITKRAFT Ventures and Corundum as our early backers is a reminder that this company has always been about long-term conviction.

Final thoughts

This company started with a simple belief: publishers deserve to own their business. They deserve better economics, better tooling, and better control over the experiences they create.

What we’ve seen over the past 12 months is proof that belief was right.

But the real work begins now.

To my incredible co-founder Roei Barassi and the world class team we’ve assembled - thank you for building something this complex with speed, clarity, and heart.

To our partners, thank you for betting on us early and continuing to push us forward.

And to the publishers still figuring out how to navigate this shift, we’d love to help.

We’re building the direct-to-consumer platform for the new mobile monetization era.

And we’re just getting started.

— Maor