--- title: "Related-party dealings at AppLovin" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/applovin-corp/related-parties/ as_of: 2026-10-16 keywords: ["AppLovin","Adam Foroughi","Herald Chen","KKR Denali","Voting Agreement","Angel Pride Holdings","Hontai App Fund","Orient Hontai","Hao Tang","Midterm Success","Adjust","Machine Zone","Tripledot","MoPub","Culper Research","Muddy Waters Research","Fuzzy Panda Research","securities class action","The Privacy Collective","Hart-Scott-Rodino Act"] --- # Related-party dealings at AppLovin **Question.** Which transactions has AppLovin had with its insiders and their companies? **Answer.** AppLovin lent its executives money to exercise options before the IPO, bought shares back from Foroughi, Vivas, Chen and Valenzuela, employs director Eduardo Vivas's brother and paid a game company owned by Vivas. It invested $50 million in Humans, Inc., where Vivas was chief operating officer, and wrote it off in 2025. Since 2025 Tripledot, in which it holds about 22%, is a related party. ## Current arrangements - Analysis: AppLovin's 2026 proxy states that since January 1, 2025 its only transactions above $120,000 with related persons are the Investor Rights Agreement with Adam Foroughi, which lets him and an affiliate require the registration of their shares, the Equity Exchange Right Agreement with Herald Chen, and the employment of Rafael Vivas. Under Chen's agreement, Class A shares he receives from pre-IPO options can be exchanged for Class B shares; options over 330,201 shares remained in March 2026. [src-001] ## The Vivas family - Analysis: Rafael Vivas, brother of director Eduardo Vivas, is an employee who received a $400,000 salary in 2025; according to the trade press he headed the Lion Studios publishing division at its 2018 launch. AppLovin lent him $2.3 million in 2019 to exercise options early, and the note was repaid in March 2024. Cookie Monster Capital, a game developer owned by Eduardo Vivas, received $0.7 million in 2021 and $0.2 million in 2022 under a game publishing agreement. [src-001] [src-002] [src-010] [src-100] [src-099] [src-034] - Analysis: In February 2024 AppLovin agreed to invest $50 million in Humans, Inc., developer of the Flip Shop app, for about 4.1%; Flip Shop then merged with Curated, Inc., founded and run by Eduardo Vivas, who became its chief operating officer, a director and a holder of more than 5%. AppLovin treated Humans as a related party until Vivas left in September 2025; no revenue-share transactions took place, and AppLovin wrote off the whole investment in 2025. [src-041] [src-002] ## Loans and share repurchases - Analysis: Before the IPO AppLovin lent Herald Chen $12,120,000, Katie Jansen three notes totalling about $2.6 million, Vasily Shikin two notes and Victoria Valenzuela $4,863,343 to exercise options early; all were repaid in February 2021. In December 2019 it bought back shares from Foroughi and Eduardo Vivas for promissory notes of $10.0 million and $1.2 million, repaid in 2021, and in February 2021 it bought shares from Chen for $12.3 million and from Valenzuela for $4.9 million. [src-006] [src-034] [src-010] [src-056] - Analysis: In March 2024 AppLovin bought 3,000,000 shares from Midterm Success Limited, then a holder of more than 5%, for about $182 million, which its 2025 proxy reports as a related-party transaction. In the IPO's directed share programme director Margaret Georgiadis bought 3,600 shares and the spouse of director Craig Billings 202 shares. [src-041] [src-056] ## Tripledot - Analysis: Since selling its Apps business to Tripledot in June 2025, AppLovin accounts for its stake by the equity method and treats Tripledot and its subsidiaries as related parties; it recognised $19.0 million of revenue from them by the end of 2025. [src-002] ## Sources - [src-001] AppLovin Corporation proxy statement for the 2026 annual meeting (Schedule 14A), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2026-04-20 - [src-002] AppLovin Corporation annual report on Form 10-K for 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2026 - [src-010] AppLovin Corporation proxy statement for the 2023 annual meeting, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2023 - [src-100] Media source ยท src-100 - [src-099] Exhibit 21.1, subsidiaries of AppLovin Corporation (annual report for 2022), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2023 - [src-034] AppLovin Corporation annual report on Form 10-K for 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2023 - [src-041] AppLovin Corporation proxy statement for the 2025 annual meeting, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2025 - [src-006] AppLovin Corporation IPO prospectus (Form 424(b)(4)), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2021-04-15 - [src-056] AppLovin Corporation proxy statement for the 2022 annual meeting, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2022