Neon, a global payments and e-commerce platform for game publishers, has closed a $13m Series A round aimed at helping studios gain independence from app stores.
The round saw KRAFTON Inc. come on board as both a backer and strategic partner, while existing investors A16Z GAMES and Renegade Partners also returned to participate.
The company said the raise reinforces its two core convictions: that the future of gaming should be shaped by publishers and their communities rather than intermediaries and app stores, and that this can only happen if publishers control the customer relationships and economics underpinning their businesses.
According to Neon, publishers have historically been forced into an unattractive trade-off. Either construct a worldwide payments and commerce function in-house, or pass their players over to yet another middleman with a business model built on owning those relationships. The firm argues the latter path simply recreates the original problem with an additional app store involved.
Neon was created to offer a third way, granting publishers strategic control over their audiences, data and revenues while it handles the underlying infrastructure and day-to-day operational burden, without hidden agendas or opaque systems.
Neon operates a global payments and e-commerce platform built to help game publishers increase revenues and reduce their dependence on app stores. The business champions open and transparent commerce, built around clear decision-making, actionable insight and aligned incentives. It was established by payments and FinTech veterans who are also passionate gamers, and positions itself as a partner that shares its playbook, co-pilots decisions and shields customers from complexity, replacing legacy black-box systems with modern, developer-centric infrastructure.
The team is drawn from companies including Apple, Affirm, Unity and Visa, and the firm counts Thrive Capital, a16z, Griffin Gaming Partners and Ribbit Capital among its backers.
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