Appcharge Appoints Former Monday.com VP Ronen Morecki as COO to Scale DTC Gaming Payments

Appcharge has appointed Ronen Morecki as Chief Operating Officer to scale its direct-to-consumer payments platform beyond the gaming sector. As regulatory shifts in the US and EU dismantle the walled gardens of mobile app stores, the move signals a strategic push to capture a share of the projected $450 billion in-app purchase market.

What was announced

Appcharge, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) payments platform specifically designed for mobile games, has named Ronen Morecki as its new Chief Operating Officer. Morecki joins the company from monday.com, where he served as VP of Payments. In his new role, he is tasked with leading Appcharge’s payments strategy and operations, specifically focusing on the company’s Merchant of Record (MoR) platform. This platform is designed to handle the financial complexities of global transactions, including tax compliance, fraud prevention, chargebacks, and the management of multiple acquirers across different regions.

The appointment comes as the app economy faces significant structural changes. Recent court rulings and regulatory updates in the United States and the European Union have forced Apple and Google to allow app developers to process payments outside of their proprietary systems. While game publishers have been the early adopters of this DTC model—with Appcharge noting its model is already proven at over $1 billion annually—the company is now targeting fitness, education, AI, and subscription-based apps. With the global in-app purchase (IAP) market expected to reach $450 billion by 2030, Appcharge is positioning its infrastructure to absorb the operational burden for developers looking to bypass traditional app store commissions.

The companies involved

Appcharge operates as a specialist in the direct-to-consumer payments space, providing the infrastructure necessary for mobile developers to sell digital goods and subscriptions directly to users. The company’s growth is supported by a range of venture capital firms and industry partners, including IVP, Creandum, and Play Ventures. Creandum, in particular, has a significant presence in the fintech ecosystem, with FF News tracking seven previous stories involving the firm.

Ronen Morecki brings a background that spans both the provider and merchant sides of the payments industry. Before his tenure at monday.com, where he managed pricing, packaging, and subscription lifecycles, he co-founded the payments technology firm ZooZ. Following the acquisition of ZooZ by PayU, Morecki served as the latter’s Chief Technology Officer. This experience in building and scaling enterprise SaaS and payments businesses is central to Appcharge's efforts to mature its operational framework. The company competes in an increasingly crowded field of payment orchestrators and MoR providers, leveraging its specific expertise in the high-volume, high-complexity gaming sector to differentiate its offering.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked the impact of Appcharge’s technology on major mobile titles. In September 2024, the publication highlighted how the Jurassic World Mobile Game Shifts 26% of iOS Spend to Direct-to-Consumer Payments with Appcharge. This shift occurred within weeks of implementation, demonstrating the speed at which high-revenue games can migrate users away from traditional app store payment rails. Additionally, FF News has covered the broader investment landscape involving Appcharge’s backers and partners, including reports such as OakNorth Refinances Gaw Capital Partners' Landmark Old Street Property, reflecting the active financial environment surrounding the company's network of investors like Creandum and Play Ventures.

What this means

The appointment of a seasoned payments executive from a major SaaS player like monday.com suggests that the DTC payments market is moving from a niche gaming workaround to a mainstream enterprise requirement. For years, Apple and Google maintained a duopoly on app monetization, but the Merchant of Record model is now the primary weapon for developers seeking to reclaim their margins. This puts immense pressure on traditional app store ecosystems and legacy payment gateways that lack the specialized compliance and tax logic required for cross-border digital goods. The industry's central question is no longer whether DTC is viable, but whether developers can manage the resulting operational complexity without eroding the user experience.