Early Life
Dmitri Bukhman was born in Vologda, Russia, in 1985. He demonstrated an early aptitude for programming. In the mid-1990s, his parents equipped the family with a Pentium 100 PC, which sparked his engagement with computer games and self-taught coding. By his school years, Bukhman had excelled in programming competitions.
Rise to Success
Bukhman, along with his brother Igor, started developing and selling PC games online during high school. They officially founded Playrix in 2004, initially focusing on casual games for PC. In 2012, they launched "Township" on Facebook. It was one of the first city-building games to combine social sharing and mobile gameplay. The company then shifted its entire focus to mobile platforms, releasing successful titles such as "Gardenscapes", "Homescapes", and "Fishdom".
Key Business Strategies
Dmitri and Igor Bukhman focused on free-to-play mobile games, monetizing through in-app purchases. They expanded through acquisitions, acquiring studios to strengthen their development capacity. Playrix moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ireland, in 2013, and the brothers obtained Israeli citizenship in 2016. They later relocated to London, UK. In 2022, the company closed its offices in Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine.
Philanthropy
Dmitri, along with his wife Daria, founded Bukhman Philanthropies, focusing on neonatal and maternal health, mental health, and literature. In 2026, the foundation made a $10 million gift to the Stanford School of Medicine to advance global mental health care for children.