Why we invested in Kovalee?
by François Kergaravat & Gil Doukhan
Why we invested in Kovalee?
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming app publishing platform as the company tackles the several challenges that arise to adapt this model.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
by François Kergaravat & Gil Doukhan
Why we invested in Kovalee?
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming app publishing platform as the company tackles the several challenges that arise to adapt this model.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
We are thrilled to join Kovalee in its journey to build a global mobile app publisher, leading its €8m Series A alongside Bpifrance Digital Venture & existing investor Breega. Kovalee has the ambition to turn apps with high quality content into worldwide champions, at scale.
Kovalee has the potential to become the leading non-gaming publishing platform
As a successful publisher, Kovalee engages in long-term partnerships with app developers to launch and scale apps in a variety of verticals. This includes (but is not limited to) wellness, fitness, personal development, productivity, education… Kovalee’s team is building a unique set of automation tools, bringing it to a massive and underserved market in the app publishing space. Kovalee’s data-driven approach productizes the various steps of an app journey: identifying the high potential apps, iterating on design to better showcase content, investing in real-time in profitable acquisition channels, and optimizing App Store rankings to improve visibility. The first results are significant: Bend (stretching) and PepTalk (motivation) already became category leaders in the App Store.
As we got to know the team, we were continuously impressed by the expertise, focus and vision of Vincent & Damien. Coming from the publishing (Homa, BidMotion) and the app development (Veepee, Molotov TV) space, we are convinced they are the right team to build & scale this project.
There is high value in bringing the publishing model to new verticals, unlocking a massive and underserved market with plenty of quality app creators.
What is a mobile app publisher?
In the competitive space of mobile gaming, it has become a common practice for app developers to partner with publishers, trying to reach the top of the charts. Publishers bring in their expertise to scale the app, acting as partners of the app developer, focusing on several pre-install and post-install variables. Kovalee applies the same recipe to all apps, pushing further on automation.
Pre-install:
- user acquisition: publishers adjust bids and budgets on various advertising channels, based on Cost Per Install (CPI), user Life Time Value (LTV) & consequently Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). They also monitor and test creatives to continuously optimize performance.
Kovalee built 3 products to scale partner apps’ user acquisition:
1. Krystal, the forecasting tool is able to accurately predict subscriber LTV within 3 days of usage.
2. Krome, Kovalee’s Smart Bidder automatically adapts the bids and budgets of campaigns based on their future ROAS.
3. Kwartz optimizes the performance of the ad creatives on a variety of advertising platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Unity…).
- app store optimization: Publishers identify the best keywords (high share of voice, low CPI) across geographies to improve the app ranking in the stores.
To optimize store rankings, Kovalee created Kobalt, which analyzes the stores’ evolutions, identifies the most relevant keywords for each application and uploads new metadata on the stores.
Post-install:
- design & monetization: Publishers build tech to enable fast product iterations on the app design, constantly looking for the optimal version. Design is A/B tested, with the best version going in production.
Kovalee’s Karbon automatically predicts the winning version of any A/B Test for any app in a few days.
Interests are aligned: publishers are remunerated based on the scale of the app & its profitability, through a profit-sharing scheme with the developer.
Publishing in hypercasual gaming, a powerful model
This model proved extremely successful for scaling games, especially hyper-casual games. Hyper-casual is a category of mobile games with simple gameplay mechanics and minimal design, requiring minimal effort. They are universal (targeting a wide audience), quick to develop, and monetize through in-game advertising.
In short, reach a maximum of users, entertain them, display ads, & repeat. This model fits well with the publishing model, with fast iteration cycles & massive user acquisition possibilities. Publishers managed to scale this genre, which quickly became the #1 gaming category in terms of downloads. Voodoo & Homa are great examples of success stories in hyper-casual gaming, although they currently tend to diversify to other gaming categories.
Kovalee is replicating this publishing model to non-gaming apps, where there is valuable content and skilled app creators.
The untapped opportunity in non-gaming apps
In Q2 2022, US App Store revenue generated by non-gaming apps topped gaming revenue for the first time, while remaining behind on the Play Store. Overall, in 2022, In-App Spending for non-gaming reached $59bn, still lagging behind gaming, but growing at a fast pace.
The market is huge (think health & wellness, productivity, education, photo & video apps), and well suited for the publishing model. App developers in such verticals often create meaningful and valuable content, but lack the tech and marketing resources to scale profitably. Besides, the economics are attractive, since monetization stems from subscription models (vs ads in hypercasual), thus generating recurring revenue streams.
Adapting the publishing model to non-gaming comes with several challenges: revenue streams are spread over time, generating longer feedback cycles, and making it more difficult to predict lifetime value. “Hit” apps are thus harder to spot and to continuously optimize. In addition, the publishing model, which has become a norm in gaming, is still new to many app developers. Market education is needed, which will come with success stories & “hit” apps.
What’s next
In 2023, Kovalee plans to develop its app portfolio and generate new category leaders, while improving the underlying tech bricks. To deliver on this roadmap, the company is expanding its highly international team, hiring in Go to Market, Product and Tech positions.
