UAPI (Appy)

Moshe Vaknin brought decades of experience from AT&T, VocalTek, and three prior successful startups when he founded UAPI in late 2011. His vision was to solve a fundamental problem in mobile app marketing: how to connect app developers with the right users—not just any users, but high-quality users who would pay and engage long-term. Vaknin saw that app advertisers like King (Candy Crush) or ride-sharing companies needed sophisticated matching between users and apps, and that publishers had valuable user behavior data locked in silos.

UAPI built a proprietary platform that connected app advertisers, publishers, and users through device ID tracking and predictive analytics. The platform worked like Amazon's recommendation engine: UAPI would test different app recommendations to users across publisher partners (Pandora, Cheetah Mobile, etc.), learn their preferences over time, and optimize which apps to show them. Publishers integrated via API or SDK, providing user behavior signals (purchase habits, app category preferences) without exposing personally identifiable information—only device IDs.

The monetization model was elegant: advertisers paid per install, but more importantly, they paid for KPIs like "first ride taken" for ride-sharing apps ($12-$20 per KPI event). UAPI took 30% of revenue and returned 70% to publisher partners. By processing $1M in first-year volume and keeping $250K, they proved the model worked.

Vaknin focused on enterprise relationships. Major advertisers like Google, Amazon, and King (Candy Crush) became customers by directly seeing the value: UAPI could drive high-quality, conversion-focused users at predictable CPIs aligned to their business metrics. By 2016, the company had scaled to process $320M through the platform, generating $80M in annual revenue (their 30% cut).

The direct sales approach to enterprise advertisers clearly worked. The privacy-preserving device ID model scaled to 4,500 publisher partners globally. The predictive analytics engine continuously improved recommendations, lowering customer acquisition costs and increasing advertiser ROI. Vaknin invested heavily in R&D (30 of 130 employees) and technology to maintain competitive advantage. The company became profitable while still aggressively scaling.

What didn't work: attempts to build a SaaS product for other platforms. Vaknin was clear—UAPI is not a SaaS business. It's a proprietary platform and ecosystem, similar to Google, Facebook, or Amazon.

By 2016, UAPI had grown to 130 employees across 10 global offices (R&D in Israel, major offices in China and Indonesia, headquarters in Bay Area). The company had raised $20M in capital and was profitable. Vaknin believed they needed to reach $120M+ in gross revenue to IPO—a target he expected to exceed by mid-2017. He noted the IPO market wasn't favorable for ad-tech companies at that moment, but saw significant room to grow. Top competitors included App Loving and Aero Source, though Vaknin noted the space was collaborative as well. He had no plans to sell before 2019, preferring the path to going public.