Investing their gaming fortunes through a new family office worth $11 billion

It has been two decades since Dmitry and Igor Bukhman created one of the largest mobile-game developers in the world. With their entertainment empire now making billions of dollars, the Bukhmans are beginning to ramp up both of their plans for the future.

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Playrix's founders have moved into their first permanent office in London's glitzy St. James' district where their personal investment firm, which manages about $4 billion, will be located. The number of employees is expected to double to about ten since the start of the year, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

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An individual speaking on the condition of anonymity said the brothers were recently looking for a new partner in their family office, Rix Capital, along with a senior investment and legal staff member, after recently applying for a job. The person did not wish to be identified since the details are private. 

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A TradeAlgo report indicates that both Igor and Dmitry, who run the company which produces games such as Township and Gardenscapes, have a combined wealth of approximately $11 billion.

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There was no response from a Playrix representative.

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During the recent pandemic, the number of users of Playrix, a Dublin-based company with over 3,000 employees worldwide, has exploded, and these Russian-born Israeli entrepreneurs who live in London have quickly built up their investments outside the company.

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It has been two decades since the founding of Rix Capital, a lightly regulated investment firm for ultra-wealthy families. Over the past two decades, this number has surged globally. The average family office of a single fortune manages about $1 billion on an annual basis, according to a study conducted by Campden Wealth in 2022.

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When Igor learned from a university professor that he could sell software online in the early 2000s, the brothers got their start in Russia. During that period, he also partnered with his friend Dmitry, who was still in high school at the time. As soon as the company reached $10,000 in revenue each month in 2004, they registered as a legal entity and rented a basement office in a book warehouse.

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As a consequence of Russian invasion of Ukraine, Playrix closed its operations in the brothers' homeland and Belarus last year as it moved its headquarters to Ireland about a decade ago. The marketing agency Udonis estimates that Playrix is going to rank third by revenue among mobile game publishers in 2022.

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Despite never raising outside capital to finance Playrix, the Bukhmans still own the majority of the company. According to a person with knowledge of the matter, they have ramped up their personal investment through the dividends that have been paid out by the gaming company in the past five years. According to regulatory filings, Playrix executives established Rix Capital in late 2021.

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There is no public information available on the allocation of capital by the company, and a person who spoke with the person asked not to be identified because the information was not public, said that the firm typically allocates capital among private equity, hedge funds, fixed income, and listed stocks. It is expected that the firm will complete its move into its new London headquarters within a few months.

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Some other wealthy individuals in the world have also set up family offices in London, as well as branches of Egypt's Mansour dynasty, as well as branches of Canada's Weston family. This is partly due to London's access to luxury homes, business opportunities, and private hospitals, which make it a global hub for wealthy individuals.

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