Belarus’ Belka Games announced a strategic partnership with marketing company AppLovin.
The exact terms of the deal are not specified. Under the agreement, Belka Games will receive a strategic investment from AppLovin. The studio will remain an independent company with the the same people at the helm as before.
The Belarusian studio got AppLovin’s interest because of its rapid growth. Over the past two years, the audience of Belka Games has grown by 5 times, which resulted in a 7X increase in revenue.
“There is an exceptionally strong game developer community in Belarus, and Belka Games stood out. We are thrilled to invest in Belka Games and to accelerate its growth,” said Adam Forugi, CEO at AppLovin, via Business Wire.
Belka Games’ most successful titles are match-3 games Clockmaker and Funky Bay. Both games are making good money. In August, Clockmaker made it to the top 100 highest-grossing games in the US on Google Play.
For Belka Games, a partnership with AppLovin is an opportunity to boost its current growth rate even more through the access to the parter’s marketing expertise. AppLovin is a company that primarily focuses on games marketing.
We are very pleased to partner with AppLovin, which brings to the table an unparalleled knowledge of the global mobile gaming market and expertise in driving visibility and growth,” said Yury Mazanik, co-founder at Belka Games. “This is an exciting opportunity for the company and our entire team. We are highly committed to taking our business to the next level — for us that means global scale.
Yuri Mazanik, Co-founder at Belka Games
This is not the first major deal for AppLovin. The company disclosed two more investments it made earlier:
- in 2019, the marketing company strategically invested in Firecraft Studios. Since the beginning of the year, its match-3 Matchington Mansion has been among the top 10 highest-grossing puzzles in the USA on iOS;
- in 2018, AppLovin invested in PeopleFun. The studio is known for its Wordscapes word game, which has also been in the top 100 highest-grossing in the US since last September.
AppLovin also has its own gaming publisher Lion Studios. It specializes in hyper-casual games (its biggest releases include Happy Glass and Love Balls).