Almedia Redefines Digital Advertising Through Rewarded User Acquisition

Berlin, Germany, 22 October 2026- Almedia is a bootstrapped technology company founded in 2020 that uses its flagship platform, Freecash, to replace interruptive advertising with rewarded engagement, offering a new approach to user acquisition and audience monetization. Where legacy ad platforms sell impressions and installs, Freecash sells outcomes: new active, highly engaged users and new ways for publishers to generate revenue from their existing audiences. Its user acquisition model is powered by a proprietary machine learning engine that uses first-party data to match campaigns with the people most likely to convert and remain active.

Founder Moritz Hollander started Almedia at 18 with €20,000 of his own savings. He decided to build the company without venture capital, funding its growth with revenue from the business. Within the first month, Moritz was already able to draw a salary. Today, Almedia has reached a $1B annual revenue run rate and employs more than 170 people worldwide. From its headquarters in Berlin, the company has expanded internationally with offices in London, New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul.

The global AdTech market was worth nearly $1 trillion in 2025, and the user acquisition market alone is estimated at $78 billion annually. Almedia saw an opportunity to address some of the problems associated with motivated traffic, including low-quality installs and weak retention. Its work has helped establish Rewarded User Acquisition as a credible category within advertising, and according to the 2025 AppsFlyer Performance Index, rewarded networks now account for over a third of the world’s top 20 media sources, up from four in 2023.

Over the past six years, Freecash has grown to more than 95 million registered users, with 9 million people earning rewards each month. More than 1,200 advertisers use Almedia to reach high-intent audiences through performance-driven campaigns. Its customer base includes mobile game studios such as SuperPlay, Candivore, Super Free Games, and Playtika. Almedia also works with global consumer brands including Revolut, Zalando and Wolt. Financial Times' FT1000 ranking named Almedia the third-fastest-growing company in Europe.

At the center of Almedia’s user acquisition business is rewarded engagement. Users receive personalized rewards and recommendations for interacting with advertiser campaigns, while Almedia’s technology helps identify the people most likely to remain engaged after acquisition. Across customer case studies, partners have doubled D30 ROAS and achieved up to 70% higher D30 retention. Some campaigns have scaled by as much as 20X while maintaining performance.

To date, the company has paid out more than $500 million in rewards while welcoming over 60,000 new members daily to its flagship product Freecash, which rewards users for discovering and engaging with mobile apps and games.

Market pressures and the role of rewards

Consumers are actively defending their attention and avoiding advertising

Gartner reported in April 2026 that 81% of US consumers aim to ignore or tune out ads. In its October 2025 survey of 1,539 US consumers, 52% reported taking steps to block advertising, including paying for ad-free content or using blocking tools.

How the model responds:

Rewarded engagement creates an explicit exchange: consumers choose a product to try and receive tangible rewards for completing defined actions. Part of the advertiser’s acquisition budget reaches the person participating, giving them a financial reason to explore an unfamiliar product.

Companies like Almedia work directly with advertisers to identify meaningful actions inside their apps, including reaching particular game levels and returning across several days. Each reward journey is built around the specific product. An immediate payment for downloading an app encourages a quick transaction; rewards distributed across progression encourage users to consider whether they want to spend time with the experience.

The reward can help overcome the initial reluctance to try something new and give users time to discover its appeal. It cannot manufacture enjoyment. Increasing the payment for a shallow action may generate more activity without creating stronger product interest. The important design decision is therefore which experience the reward helps people reach, rather than simply how much money is offered.

Advertising volume is expanding faster than player attention —> More advertising is competing for the same players

AppsFlyer’s January 2026 gaming report found that ad impressions increased 20% in 2025. Top-spending gaming advertisers produced 2,400–2,600 creative variations per quarter, up 25–30% year on year. Its analysis covered 9,600 gaming apps and 24.8 billion installs.

More creative output and paid activity intensify the competition for attention. The business question becomes which acquisition approach produces worthwhile users, rather than how many ads a team can generate.

Budget context: Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey puts marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue, versus 7.7% in 2025; 56% said their budgets were insufficient for their strategy. This supports pressure to make spending productive, rather than a claim that all advertising budgets are falling.

How the model responds:

Rewarded acquisition adds a route to discovery in which users actively experience the advertised product. Behavioral data and advertiser feedback are used to refine the offers, milestones and campaign economics, assessing whether acquired users generate enough value to justify continued investment.

Almedia’s case — For Treeplla’s Office Cat, a tailored campaign structure, iterative optimization and expansion across platforms and markets accompanied D30 ROAS at twice competitor benchmarks. Almedia reports that daily advertising spend increased by 550% while maintaining strong ROAS. almedia.co

The economics challenge the assumption that successful acquisition means buying the cheapest install. The real priority is the return advertisers receive relative to their spending. A more expensive acquisition can be worthwhile when the user generates proportionately greater value. Strong advertiser returns support further campaign investment, which funds additional opportunities for consumers to earn. This creates a commercial relationship in which user rewards and advertiser performance need to develop together.

Acquisition investment often stops short of sustained engagement

Gartner reported in June 2026 that awareness and conversion account for 62.6% of media spending. The share allocated to customer loyalty and retention declined 29% since 2024 to below 15%. The survey covered 401 marketing leaders, predominantly at companies with annual revenue above $1 billion.

Buying another initial interaction can be easier to measure than building customer value over time. Yet a successful download is only the beginning of the commercial relationship.

How the model responds:

Rewarded acquisition can extend the campaign across successive stages of product use. Later milestones give users reasons to return, progress further and encounter features they might otherwise never reach. The timing and duration of rewards become part of how an advertiser develops user value.

Almedia’s case — Candivore extended the reward window for Match Masters from 50 to 90 days and introduced deeper reward tiers. Almedia reports a 50% increase in D60 retention, a 65% increase in D30 ROAS and a 70% increase in D90 ROAS. Advertising spend also increased by 25%. almedia.co

The case illustrates why reward design should follow the product journey. Front-loading an incentive encourages users to complete a transaction quickly; distributing it across meaningful progression creates more opportunities to discover the product’s appeal.

These results demonstrate the potential of a longer engagement program. Establishing whether it creates lasting product demand also requires observing behavior after rewards finish. Retention during a rewarded journey and retention after its completion answer different business questions.

Install volume can obscure the commercial value of acquired users

Newzoo forecasts mobile gaming revenue growth of 6.8% in 2026 despite declining downloads, supported by deeper monetization. The divergence shows why acquisition volume alone provides an incomplete account of business performance.

Install volume and revenue growth can move in different directions. Advertisers need to understand whether acquired users return and generate revenue relative to acquisition cost.

 How the model responds:

Rewarded campaigns connect acquisition with defined product actions and allow advertisers to evaluate the associated revenue over time.

Almedia’s case — For Superbox’s Jewels Jungle, Almedia designed the program around both purchase and advertising revenue, using progression and session behavior to refine the campaign. Its published case reports D30 and D60 ROAS 1.5–2 times higher than non-rewarded channels. D30 retention reached 6%, compared with 2% for other rewarded channels. almedia.co

The goal is to identify which behavior predicts commercial value and align the program around it. Longer-term revenue and cohort comparisons improve that assessment, while causal claims about additional business still require appropriate testing.

About Almedia GmbH

Almedia GmbH is a Germany-based advertising technology company founded in 2020 and known for its flagship platform, Freecash. The company specializes in rewarded user acquisition, connecting advertisers with engaged audiences through app and game experiences that offer users rewards for completing activities.