The story
AppLovin was founded in 2012 by Adam Foroughi, John Krystynak, and Andrew Karam. Foroughi stated that the AppLovin name came from Bloglovin', a content organizing company, contrary to reports of a homage to the Christopher Mintz-Plasse character from the 2007 film Superbad.
The company operated in stealth mode until 2014, raising $4 million in financing from angel investors, Streamlined Ventures and the Webb Investment Network. Before emerging from stealth mode, AppLovin acquired customers, including Opentable and Spotify. The company was ranked #10 on the 2016 Deloitte Fast 500 North America list, and again in 2018. Foroughi was recognized on the 2017 San Francisco Business Times "40 Under 40" list.
In July 2018, AppLovin launched Lion Studios, which works with mobile developers to publish and promote their games. A convertible note facility previously received from Hontai Capital was fully refinanced in August 2018, after AppLovin raised a significant credit facility from U.S.-based investors. Hontai retains a small equity stake in AppLovin. That same month, the private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. acquired a minority stake in AppLovin for $400 million.
In 2020, it added partnerships with Adjust and Facebook Audience Network to its in-app bidding for developers, and was ranked by Pocket Gamer on its list of Top 50 Mobile Game Makers. That year, 49% of the company's revenue came from businesses using its software and 51% from consumers making in-app purchases.
In March 2021, the company filed for an IPO to raise $100 million. On April 15, 2021, AppLovin became a public company, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker APP; it began trading at US$70 per share, with a total valuation of approximately US$24 billion.
In July 2025, Barron's reported that the company was valued at $123 billion.
On September 22, 2025, Applovin was added to the S&P 500 index.
From Wikipedia’s article on AppLovin, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8