General
October 5, 2020
4 minutes read

AppLovin Eyes Soon Public Listing

Katie Jansen, CMO, AppLovin. Photo by Harry Murphy / RISE via Sportsfile, licensed under Creative Commons AppLovin, a mobile gaming upstart…

Katie Jansen, CMO, AppLovin.

Photo by Harry Murphy / RISE via Sportsfile, licensed under Creative Commons

AppLovin, a mobile gaming upstart backed by investors including private equity firm KKR, is eyeing a soon public listing and has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to lead preparations for a listing that could come as early as next year, according to a report from Reuters. According to Reuters, AppLovin expects a public listing that’ll give it a significantly higher valuation than its last private valuation of $2 billion, with the company bolstered by a long history of profitability and an expectation to generate up to $1.5 billion in revenue this year. AppLovin is majorly a platform adopted by game developers to monetize their games but also develops and publishes its own games, being fresh off an acquisition of mobile gaming powerhouse Machine Zone in a reported $500 million deal.

AppLovin as a company was founded in 2012. It’s so far raised a total of $1.4 billion in equity and debt financing from a group of investors, among them private equity giant KKR, Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital, and venture capital firm Nimble Ventures. AppLovin’s most recent funding round was in 2018 when KKR paid $400 million for a 20% stake in the company. In that same year, AppLovin, majorly a mobile games monetization platform, set up its own gaming venture, Lion Studios, to promote and publish games. The company has since expanded that venture with a series of acquisitions and investments, among them purchasing Machine Zone, a major mobile game developer.

AppLovin hired its first-ever Chief Financial Officer in November of last year, a move that itself signals preparations for a public listing.