Navigating growth & Resilience: How Malpa games Leveraged User Acquisition Financing for Strategic Expansion
The mobile gaming landscape is fiercely competitive. Publishers face a constant dilemma: invest heavily in marketing existing hits, or diversify into new projects? For rapidly growing companies like Malpa Games, finding a solution that allows for both is critical. This case study details how Malpa Games, a specialist in casual puzzle titles, successfully navigated this challenge through a strategic financing partnership with pvx Partners, demonstrating a powerful model for sustainable growth in the mobile gaming industry.
The Publisher’s Predicament: Balancing Scale and Portfolio Diversification
Founded in 2022, Malpa Games quickly established itself with popular titles like Word Search sea and Word Pizza, amassing over 65 million downloads globally. This success, however, brought a common challenge: limited capital. The company recognized the need to scale user acquisition to maximize the potential of its existing games, but simultaneously understood the importance of expanding its portfolio to mitigate risk and capitalize on new opportunities. Investing solely in new projects risked stifling the growth of proven performers, while focusing exclusively on marketing existing titles could leave the company vulnerable to market shifts and competitor innovation.
This pressure point is notably acute for publishers supporting self-reliant developers, as Malpa games does. A growing influx of developers seeking publishing support demanded a swift and decisive strategy.
The rise of User Acquisition (UA) Financing: A Modern Solution
Recognizing the limitations of traditional funding routes – which often involve equity dilution - Malpa Games, through a referral from the Mobile Finance Collective, explored the emerging field of User Acquisition (UA) financing. This innovative approach provides dedicated funding specifically for marketing expenditure, offering a compelling alternative to conventional loans or venture capital.
UA financing allows companies to scale marketing efforts without sacrificing equity or control. Crucially, it aligns incentives around performance, sharing the risk associated with user acquisition campaigns. This is a notable departure from traditional financing models, where the lender’s risk is largely independent of the campaign’s success.
The PvX Partners Partnership: A Non-Recourse, Performance-Based Facility
Malpa Games secured a $20 million credit facility from PvX Partners, structured over a 12-month term. This wasn’t a typical loan. The facility is non-recourse, meaning it doesn’t require pledges of shares, intellectual property, or floating charges on the company’s assets. This demonstrates a high degree of trust and confidence in Malpa games’ ability to execute.
The structure is elegantly designed around performance.PvX Partners funds up to 80% of UA campaigns across key titles (Word Search Game, Word Pizza, Word Spells), and repayment is derived from a share of net revenues generated by newly acquired users. Interest rates are dynamically tied to the speed at which campaigns recoup their investment, further incentivizing efficient and profitable marketing.
This performance-based repayment mechanism is a key differentiator. It ensures cash flow remains tightly aligned with incoming revenue,minimizing liquidity pressures and allowing Malpa Games to aggressively scale marketing activity as long as campaigns remain profitable.
Measurable Results: Growth without Compromise
The impact of the partnership has been demonstrably positive. Over the past five months, Malpa Games has conserved over $3 million in cash reserves while simultaneously increasing its user acquisition spending by 81% as January 2025. This is a powerful illustration of the benefits of UA financing: accelerated growth without depleting vital capital reserves.
moreover, the financial flexibility afforded by the facility has enabled Malpa Games to initiate progress on three additional titles for publishing. These new projects are poised to benefit from the same UA financing model once they achieve stable profitability, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and expansion.
Strategic Implications & Industry Trends
Malpa Games’ experience highlights a broader trend within the mobile gaming industry. Developers and publishers are increasingly turning to performance-based funding models to support user acquisition, recognizing the limitations of traditional financing options.
This shift is driven by several factors:
* Increased Marketing Costs: The cost of acquiring users is constantly rising, making it challenging for companies to maintain growth without external funding.
* Demand for Flexibility: Publishers need the agility to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
* Risk Mitigation: Performance-based financing allows companies to share the risk associated with user acquisition campaigns, reducing their overall exposure.
Looking Ahead: A Foundation for Sustainable Growth
Malpa Games views its partnership with PvX Partners as a cornerstone of its long-term growth strategy. The financing provides the company with the financial stability and flexibility to pursue both organic expansion and strategic diversification.
By maintaining a balance between proven performers and new projects, and by leveraging UA financing to scale marketing activity without sacrificing equity or control, Malpa Games is well-positioned to thrive in the competitive mobile gaming landscape. this case study serves as a compelling example of how innovative financing models can empower publishers
