A British developer starts with 24 euros and ends up a millionaire. Now the developer has sold his company. And he is not the first person to achieve this rise.
If someone manages to turn a few euros into several million, it is often referred to as ‘from rags to riches.’
The success story of a Brit started in his childhood bedroom with 20 British pounds (about 24 euros) and now culminates in the sale of his company for nearly 30 million US dollars. Other users, like the famous streamer Ninja, now regret their immense wealth.
A service to help fund game servers
Who is it about? The British developer Lee McNeil founded the company “Tebex” in 2011. He had 20 British pounds and his room in his parents’ apartment at his disposal. Within 10 years, McNeil managed to build a loyal fanbase with his company. Its origins trace back to the monetization of ARK servers and a plugin for Minecraft (Buycraft).
What exactly is Tebex? With Tebex, gamers or streamers could integrate donation systems into their servers. Those who donate money for the costs of the server receive special rewards like badges or in-game advantages. Additionally, users could integrate an in-game store on their server, where they could sell cosmetic features to the community.
Tebex takes a small fee for these services as they provide the store and handle the transactions. You can also see how Tebex works in an official video by the developers. Here they show how to integrate a plugin for a store on a Rust server:
How much has McNeil earned with the company? Tebex now manages the creation of web shops and game servers and works with major games like Minecraft or ARK: Survival Evolved. And it’s doing very well. Since its founding, Tebex is said to have generated over 500 million US dollars. In December 2021 alone, more than 10 million US dollars were reportedly paid out to partners.
In 2022 Tebex is bought by a software platform
In March 2022, the software platform Overwolf purchased the company Tebex. Overwolf also focuses on in-game services like small modifications designed to make the games easier for users. They use an overlay to avoid having to interfere with the game engines.
This follows a similar path that Tebex had offered. Overwolf does not develop its own games, but rather additional tools or software for an existing game.
Overwolf pays a sum of 29 million US dollars for the acquisition of Tebex. The sale is primarily about growth. McNeil, the head of Tebex, commented on the sale:
From the moment we first met the Overwolf team, it was clear that they are committed to the UGC market [User Generated Content] and ensuring that creators are compensated for their hard work. Joining Overwolf allows Tebex to extend its offerings to more game servers and publishers and, more importantly, to further grow the communities of our existing game servers. Their commitment to helping us develop the game server industry will lead Tebex into our next growth chapter.
By the way, McNeil is to remain the CEO of Tebex.
There are also other well-known “self-made millionaires” in the gaming industry
Who else has made a fortune? Another well-known “self-made millionaire” is the developer Steven Sharif. He also built up a huge fortune within a few years. For years, he was accused of having earned his wealth through a juice company that relies on a multi-level marketing system. However, he vehemently denied the accusation of having made his millions from juice.
Sharif has been working on the MMORPG “Ashes of Creation,” which is intended to be in the spirit of the successor to Everquest Next, for years. He wants to finance the entire MMORPG out of his own pocket without having to rely on investors. In an interview, he stated that his MMORPG is to become one of the largest and most successful MMOs:
Millionaire says his new MMORPG will be one of the “largest and most successful MMOs”
