Neon raises $13mn to build direct commerce tools for game publishers

Neon has raised $13mn in a funding round led by Krafton, after reporting 200% growth over the previous year, according to PYMNTS. The company is positioning itself as infrastructure for game publishers seeking to sell directly to players outside Apple and Google payment channels.

The shift has become more pressing as regulators push app-store operators to permit more alternative payments and as publishers test web stores and other routes to market. Avoiding platform commissions remains part of the appeal, but Neon founder and chief executive Chris Faught told PYMNTS that publishers now need a broader operating system for direct commerce, including payments, identity, fraud controls, loyalty, data and consumer trust.

Faught said Neon was initially described as the “Shopify of gaming,” a comparison he said still applies but no longer captures the full scope of the company’s plans. “What we’ve been building, and what our vision is set on now, is being the infrastructure on which these publishers build more scalable direct consumer channels,” he told PYMNTS, adding that the company also aims to support a wider commerce ecosystem around publishers’ businesses.

Publishers seek control beyond lower fees

Direct-to-consumer gaming commerce began as a cost argument: move purchases from an app store to a web store and reduce the fee paid to the platform. Faught told PYMNTS that Neon partners have shifted 30%, 40%, 50% and, in some cases, more than 70% of gross revenue away from Apple and Google purchasing systems.

That migration leaves publishers with operational questions that app stores had previously handled. Faught said publishers are reassessing how much they pay existing distribution partners and are trying to understand payment costs, including international fees.

The model resembles the path taken by many online retailers. Companies often begin on large marketplaces because those platforms aggregate consumers, then build their own storefronts and gradually take responsibility for customer relationships, payments and distribution across multiple sales channels.

Faught said one risk for publishers is replacing one intermediary with another. Merchant-of-record providers can manage payments, taxes and compliance for global commerce, but they can also sit between the publisher and the player. “If you zoom out, it ends up looking exactly like the structure the market did with the app stores in the first place,” Faught told PYMNTS. “Just a new intermediary.”

Data and trust become central to direct sales

Neon’s view, as described by Faught, is that larger publishers want more control over the commercial relationship rather than another party owning the link to the customer. That includes selling through web stores as well as through moments around games, such as livestreams, community forums and esports events, while continuing to distribute through Apple and Google.

Customer identity is a major part of the strategy. Faught told PYMNTS that platforms have often obscured user information from publishers, leaving game companies with limited access to purchase histories, email addresses and attribution data. He said direct channels can be valuable even if payment fees become comparable with app-store charges, because publishers can collect customer data, market directly, cross-sell future titles and seek higher lifetime value.

Those incentives also explain why publishers may use discounts, exclusive digital goods, cash back or loyalty rewards in direct channels. In that framing, promotions help persuade players to establish a direct relationship with the publisher.

Faught said consumer trust remains a constraint. Apple and Google have trained users to expect a secure and familiar checkout, while a publisher directing a player to a web purchase flow has to earn that confidence. He said Neon aims to give publishers control over payment routing, fraud screening, fees and local payment costs without taking ownership of the player relationship itself.

“Our view is the moat here is reimagining what a merchant of record should be in 2026,” Faught told PYMNTS.

This story draws on original reporting from PYMNTS.