Game of Whales

About Game of Whales

Game of Whales provides a monetization optimization platform for mobile game developers, using AI and machine learning to increase in-app purchases (IAPs) and player lifetime value. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, the company was established by serial entrepreneurs Doron Kagan (CEO), Maya Gurevich Kagan, and Dmitry Burlakov (CTO). The founders drew from their extensive experience in the mobile gaming industry, including at Deemedya, which garnered over 200 million downloads, to build a platform they felt was missing from the market. Kagan, a serial entrepreneur with two previous successful exits, identified the need for a fully automated tool that could handle the complexities of monetization, allowing developers to focus on game creation.

The company's core service is a software development kit (SDK) that, once integrated into a game, tracks user behavior in real-time. Its AI-driven engine then automatically micro-segments players based on their actions and predicted future behavior, such as their likelihood to spend money or stop playing. Based on these predictions, the platform programmatically interacts with users by delivering personalized incentives like discounts and special offers to encourage spending and reduce churn. This automated process combines actionable analytics with real-time campaign management, aiming to convert non-paying users and retain high-spending players, known in the industry as "whales". The business operates on a B2B SaaS model, targeting mobile game developers and publishers.

In August 2018, Game of Whales acquired the tracking application Appstatics. A significant milestone was achieved in April 2019 when the company secured $2 million in a seed funding round led by Konvoy Ventures, with participation from other institutional investors like Dragon Capital and Shaked Ventures. However, according to some sources, the company is now listed as out of business as of December 2020. Prior to this, trial campaigns involving millions of users reportedly showed significant revenue increases and a decrease in player churn for participating games.