The story
Xsolla was founded in 2005 by Aleksandr Agapitov as 2Pay in Perm, Russia. The company moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, California, in 2010, and was renamed Xsolla the following year. The firm added support for Russian gamers to use cash kiosks to add funds to their Steam accounts using physical currency in 2011, and partnered with ZipZap in 2012 to accept new payments from those without bank accounts.
In 2021, it announced plans to lay off 150 employees following the company's use of artificial intelligence to analyze employee work habits. Agapitov made multiple statements about the layoffs that were received poorly by the public and the press.
Agapitov stepped back from the CEO role in 2022 and Konstantin Golubitsky was appointed to CEO position in February the same year.
The company made a series of acquisitions in the 2020s, including data visualization firm Slemma in 2021 and AcceleratXR, a server technology provider for live service games in 2023.
Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov called for a boycott of the company that year due to the company continuing to do business in Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Xsolla leadership said its partners were aware of its operations in Russia and that it would continue to operate in the country while its partners chose to serve Russian gamers. The same year, former Xsolla global accounting vice president Emil Aliyev sued the company for wrongful termination and retaliation against a whistleblower, alleging he was fired after he reported to his superiors that the company had mishandled US$40 million. Xsolla denied the allegations.
In February 2022, Xsolla partners with venture capital company Nazca to form video game venture Joystick Ventures.
Pocket Gamer named Xsolla "Best Service Provider" at its 2022 Mobile Game Awards.
The firm published its first State of Play report in 2023, an analysis of the video game industry.
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Agapitov returned as CEO in February 2024 following two years away from the company.
Bloomberg reported in 2024 Aleksandr Agapitov transferred over $100 million from company accounts to personal accounts and back.
From Wikipedia’s article on Xsolla, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4