Israeli gaming startup CrazyLabs acquired by Sweden's Embracer Group

Israeli gaming startup CrazyLabs has been acquired by Sweden's Embracer Group AB, the companies announced on Thursday. CrazyLabs is an Israel-based publisher and developer of hit mobile game Super Stylist and long-lasting casual and lifestyle role-playing games. Additionally, CrazyLabs is one of the top hyper-casual publishers. CrazyLabs was the third most downloaded publisher in all mobile games in 2020 with over 4.5 billion downloads to date and over 110 million monthly active users.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but said that the purchase price contains an upfront part and consists of a mix of cash and newly issued Embracer B shares. CrazyLabs management, including Founder and CEO Sagi Schliesser, will remain in their current roles.

"In these exhilarating times for mobile games we are extremely happy to join forces with the whole Embracer family and the DECA Group in particular," said Sagi Schliesser. "We are confident that this is a jump forward for CrazyLabs on our journey of becoming the top publisher and developer of casual and hyper-casual games and anticipate in excitement what's yet to come!"

CrazyLabs currently engages over 300 FTEs across their sites in Israel, China, Macedonia, Germany and Ukraine. Additionally, the company has a worldwide network of developers located across its hyper-casual accelerators "CrazyHubs" in India, Serbia, Poland, Turkey and South Africa, with the objective to expand its global footprint to source creative talent from across the world. CrazyLabs engages hundreds of external hyper-casual studios concurrently helping CrazyLabs concept, test, and scale their products.

CrazyLabs started its journey under the name TabTale, focusing on kids' educational games, but has over recent years found further success in casual, lifestyle, and hyper-casual games and changed its name to CrazyLabs. Together, CrazyLabs' games are engaging over 110 million users every month, 12 million users daily, with more than 4.5 billion in lifetime downloads. CrazyLabs exhibited gross revenues of $152.9 million for the period of July 2020-June 2021.

Within the casual and lifestyle RPG segment, CrazyLabs focuses on an underserved female demographic. Many of the games combine licensed IP from top worldwide entertainment brands. The largest title in this diversified segment is Super Stylist, the most downloaded fashion game in 2020, with over 60 million lifetime downloads to date. CrazyLabs also has two additional casual titles currently in development.

Within the hyper-casual segment, CrazyLabs has become a leading publisher for indie game developers who are looking for a strong publishing partner. Examples of titles from CrazyLabs' successful hyper-casual portfolio include "Tie Dye", "ASMR Slicing", "Acrylic Nails", "Phone Case DIY", "Dentist Bling" and "I Can Paint", over 70% of the hyper-casual titles released in 2020 reached more than 20 million downloads within their first 12 months. Together, CrazyLabs' hyper-casual segment reached over 480 million downloads in 2020.

"CrazyLabs is exactly the type of company Embracer wants to join forces with. Sagi and team are extremely talented, driven and long-term oriented," said Lars Wingefors, co-founder and Group CEO of Embracer Group. "They have over a decade of success and have proven that they can adapt and succeed in an ever-evolving environment of mobile games. CrazyLabs has an exciting growth plan and their publishing capabilities will further strengthen the mobile ecosystem within Embracer."

You can watch below an interview held with CrazyLabs Founder and CEO Sagi Schliesser at last week’s Gaming2021 event