M&A, Investments and Exec Appointments
Duolingo has acquired NextBeat, a London-based mobile games start-up founded by Simon Hade that specializes in music themed games.
Turkish mobile games studio Good Job Games has secured $60m in Series A funding, co-led by Menlo Ventures and Anthos Capital, with additional participation by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company also raised $23m in a seed round earlier this year.
Supercell has appointed Drussila Hollanda as Head of New Games. Hollanda returns to Supercell having previously left the business in 2020 to become CEO of Papukaya, a Helsinki-based mobile games studio.
Swedish online and mobile game developer Star Stable Entertainment has appointed James Watkins as its new CFO and COO. Watkins has deep games industry experience having previously held finance leadership roles at Spin Master and EA.
Spin Master has appointed Marc De Vellis as EVP and president of its Digital Games Creative Centre. De Vellis will oversee the digital games segment, including Toca Boca and PikNik. He previously spent 20 years at EA where he served as a producer and Head of Operations.
Jagex has appointed Dawnesh Mistry as SVP Strategy. Mistry joins from Huuuge Games where he was their VP Strategy and Investment.
Polish mobile games developer Ten Square Games has appointed Tom Westall as Director of Product Management. Westall was previously Product Management Director for Super Evil Megacorp.
Chiwei Lee has joined Roblox as Director of Roblox Innovation Studio. Lee joins from Meta, where he led strategic advertising and technology partnerships.
Former King CEO and founder Riccardo Zacconi has joined Layer AI as a member of the Board of Directors.
NetEase has appointed Kok Chung Johnny Chan to its board of directors. Chan has been working in the investment banking and investment management industry for the last 40 years and is currently Chief Investment Officer of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company.
Appcharge, an Israeli-based startup providing a mobile game payments platform, has raised $58m Series B funding led by IVP, with participation from Playrix, Creandum, Play Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Smilegate Investment, Moneta Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures and Corundum.
STAN, Indian’s social app for games and creators, has raised $8.5m in equity funding from major Japanese games companies including, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and Reazon Holdings, alongside Google’s AI Futures Fund and Aptos Labs. STAN enables creators to monetise through brand activations and helps publishers distribute games via creator engagement.
2K has appointed Stephen Peacock as AI Director. Peacock was most recently Head of Games AI at Keyword Studios, and Head of AI/ML for Games at AWS before that.
Industry News
Grow a Garden, a new free-to-play idle farming game released on Roblox in March, set a record for the highest concurrent users, with 21.9m players on July 19, 2025. This is believed to be the highest CCU in video game history, surpassing Fortnite’s 15.3 million.
A report into the mobile games industry from Appmagic shows a 3.6% increase in mobile casual games revenues, and a 6% increase in downloads from the category.
Google Cloud announced the results of a survey of 615 game developers across the US, South Korea, Norway, Finland and Sweden, revealing that 90% have already integrated generative AI into their workflow. Developers reported using GenAI to automate repetitive tasks, develop mechanics, and explore new genres.
Casual and casino games publisher Playtika has revised its long-term direct-to-consumer revenue share target from 30% to 40% as it aims to capitalise on recent landmark rulings against the App Store and Google Play.
Make-A-Wish has launched “Infinite Wishes”, a new game-themed programme. It offers multiple options and tiers for games companies to participate, regardless of their size or budget.
Hiring Trends
With more acquisitions likely in the mobile games sector in the next year, how to integrate acquisitions remains a tough challenge for many games companies. Centralize and control too much, and it can create resentment amongst the acquired businesses.
Leaving acquisitions alone can lead to duplication of resources and inefficiencies.
These problems aren’t unique to the games industry; they’re very typical of the challenges you find in acquisitive private equity backed companies of all kinds. Skilled operators who can shape culture, build alignment, and provide a clear sense of purpose often make the difference.
About Neon River
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