| Outfit7 | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Industry: | Video games, Web series distribution |
| Founded: | in Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| Hq Location City: | Ljubljana |
| Hq Location Country: | Slovenia |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Parent: | Zhejiang Jinke Entertainment Culture Co., Ltd. (2017–present) |
| Num Employees: | 400[1] |
| Num Employees Year: | 2020 |
| Revenue: | $130 million[2] |
Outfit7 (formerly Outfit7 Limited) is a Slovenian video game developer, best known as the creator of the Talking Tom & Friends app and media franchise. The company was founded by Samo and Iza Login. The company operates in 7 studios worldwide and almost exclusively focuses on mobile games related to the Talking Tom & Friends franchise. In January 2017, the company was acquired by United Luck Consortium and then sold to Zhejiang Jinke for over $USD 1 billion. The company also owns HyperDot Studios.[3]
Outfit7 was founded by Samo and Iza Sia Login, who had studied computer science in college and wanted to get into the mobile app business following the debut of the Apple App Store. In 2009, they invested $250,000 (€180,000) with six friends and set up an office in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where they developed some apps. Their first few attempts – a soccer app, a travel guide to Iceland and a "wealth affirmation app" were unsuccessful. After six months of attempts, Iza Sia and Samo developed a children's app called Talking Tom Cat, in which an animated cat named Tom would repeat in a "high-pitched helium squeak whatever is spoken into an iPhone's microphone" along with other reactions to feeding and petting.[4]
The Talking Tom & Friends franchise was created with the launch of the Talking Tom Cat app. It focused on anthropomorphic cats and dogs repeating things said to it by the user, before shifting focus to other apps such as endless-runner games, virtual pet games and the like.
The franchise reached 300 million downloads 19 months after its launch. The app franchise then went on to hit one billion downloads in June 2013.[5] Talking Tom & Friends apps have been downloaded over 12 billion times as of April 2020, reaching 18 billion in March 2022.[6] [7]
Outfit7 operates offices in 6 cities in Europe and Asia. The company currently operates in London, Ljubljana, Barcelona, Limassol, Hong Kong and Beijing.[15]
In 2016, Samo and Iza Login hired Goldman Sachs to arrange for a deal to sell their company. On 20 January 2017, it was announced in a press release that Outfit7 was sold to United Luck Holdings Consortium, a China-based group for US$1 billion. However, four days later, another press release indicated that United Luck would sell Outfit7 to a Chinese chemical company, Zhejiang Jinke Peroxide Company, which was renamed to Zhejiang Jinke Entertainment Culture Co. Ltd after it had purchased a Chinese game developer.[16] There was some confusion over who owned Outfit7 given that Jinke had disclosed plans to buy a 10% stake of United Luck. In March 2017, the agreement to sell Outfit7 to Jinke was signed.[17] [18] Samo Login remained on board as company director, and Iza Login remained as an advisor.[19] [20] [21] In July 2018, Xinyu Qian became the CEO.[22]