In celebration of Women’s History month, we’re celebrating the founders behind groundbreaking apps and games from around the world - made by women or for women. Let's discover four of my favorites in this latest batch of nine #WeArePlay stories.

Múkami Kinoti Kimotho

Royelles Revolution / Royelles Revolution: Gaming For Girls (USA)

Múkami's journey began when she noticed the lack of representation for girls in the gaming industry. Determined to change this narrative, she created Royelles, a game designed to inspire girls and non-binary people to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) fields. The game is anchored in fierce female avatars like the real life NASA scientist Mara who voices a character. Royelles is revolutionizing the gaming landscape and empowering the next generation of innovators. Múkami's excited to release more gamified stories and learning modules, and a range of extended reality and AI-powered avatars based on the game’s characters.

"If we're going to effectively educate Gen Z and Gen Alpha, we have to meet them in the metaverse and leverage gamified play as a means of driving education, awareness, inspiration and empowerment.” 

- Múkami

Leonika Sari Njoto Boedioetomo

Reblood: Blood Services App (Indonesia)

When her university friend needed an urgent blood transfusion but discovered there was none available in the blood bank, Leonika became aware of the blood donation shortage in Indonesia. Her mission to address this led her to create Reblood, an app connecting blood donors with those in need. With over 140,000 blood donations facilitated to date, Reblood is not only saving lives but also promoting healthier lifestyles with a recently added feature that allows people to find the most affordable medical checkups.

“Our goal is to save more lives by raising awareness of blood donation in Indonesia and promoting healthier lifestyles for blood donors.” 

- Leonika

Luciane Antunes dos Santos and Renato Hélio Rauber

CARSUL / Car Sul: Urban Mobility App (Brazil)

Luciane was devastated when she lost her son in a car accident. Her and her husband Renato's loss led them to develop Carsul, an urban mobility app prioritizing safety and security. By providing safe transportation options and partnering with government health programs to chauffeur patients long distances to larger hospitals, Carsul is not only preventing accidents but also saving lives. Luciane and Renato's dedication to protecting others from the pain they've experienced is ongoing and they plan to expand to more cities in Brazil.

“Carsul was born from this story of loss, inspiring me to protect other lives. Redefining myself in this way is very rewarding.” 

- Luciane

Diariata (Diata) N'Diaye

Resonantes / App-Elles: Safety App for Women (France)

After hearing the stories of young people who had experienced abuse that was similar to her own, Spoken word artist Diata developed App-Elles – an app that allows women to send alerts when they're in danger. By connecting users with support networks and professional services, App-Elles is empowering women to reclaim their safety and seek help when needed.Diata also runs writing and recording workshops to help victims overcome their experiences with violence and has plans to expand her app with the introduction of a discreet wearable that sends out alerts.

“I realized from my work on the ground that there were victims of violence who needed help and support systems. This was my inspiration to create App-Elles." 

- Diata

Discover more #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.

As we bid farewell to 2023, we're excited to unveil our last #WeArePlay blog post of the year. From Lisbon to Dubai, let’s meet the creators behind the game-changing apps supporting communities, bringing innovation and joy to people.

Discover more founder stories from across the globe in the #WeArePlay collection.

Another month, another series of #WeArePlay stories from apps and games we all love. From a Salt Lake City-based music editing app to successful game studios from Indonesia, Uruguay and Türkiye - discover the inspiring founders behind them.

This time we’re starting in the US with Geraldo. Inspired by his mom’s studies in computer engineering, he decided to start his own tech company at just 16 years of age. But he was also a keen musician and merged both his passions in Moises, alongside childhood friend and co-founder Eddie. The app uses artificial intelligence to remove vocals and instruments from any song. Geraldo describes the process as like “getting a smoothie and removing only the banana” – complex, to say the least, but Moises makes it easy. He hopes “to democratize access to cutting edge audio tools for everyday musicians.”

Next up, we’re crossing the Pacific over to Indonesia where colleagues and game enthusiasts Diori and Agung decided to collaborate outside of the office on their own independent project. This culminated in the launch of their studio, Minimo, with their most successful game, Mini Racing Adventures, accumulating over 38 million downloads to date. The pair channeled Agung’s passion for cars and mechanics into this particular release, but next they’re shifting genres and working on a new shooter game.

Now we’re heading down to Uruguay where friends Pablo, Gonzalo and Alvaro had a dream of making games for a living and created Ironhide Game Studio in 2010, learning how to code for mobiles from scratch. As Pablo puts it: “Over the years we’ve realized that what we have is special, because we have the passion, but we also work really hard. This has allowed us to create something great.” Their popular title, Kingdom Rush: Tower Defence, is a strategy game set in a medieval settlement and chock-full of action-filled battles. Looking to the future, they’re hoping to branch into multiplayer games and expand their Kingdom Rush saga.

And finally we’re crossing over to Europe to meet Rina. While working in private equity and meeting an array of business heads, she was inspired to pursue an entrepreneurial path herself. Seeing how popular gaming was becoming, Rina delved into creating titles for a Turkish audience. She struck gold with her first studio becoming a tech unicorn, and soon followed it up with Spyke Games, launched alongside her brother Remi and friends Mithat, Barkin and Fuat. Their title Tile Busters combine social multiplayer fun and skill-based puzzle solving. Soon, they’re releasing a follow-up, Blitz Busters, keeping their goal of being “great content developers creating games that people crave more of.”

Discover more global #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.

We continue to be inspired by the amazing #WeArePlay stories of app and game creators on Google Play, from all corners of the Earth. This month, hear about a game changing financial app for women in Nigeria to an early learning platform that uses augmented reality.

First up, we’re in Nigeria where two former colleagues at an investment bank, Solape and Yomi, channeled their economic expertise into improving women’s accessibility to finance. HerVest is an app exclusively designed for farmers and small business owners, with saving and investment tips, financial education and credit options. Intent on improving gender equality in the financial sphere, the pair plan to reach a million women by the end of 2024 and “become the go-to financial platform for the financially underserved in Africa”.

Discover more global #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.