The company was founded in May 2011 by David Darling, co-founder and former CEO of Codemasters who is hailed as one of the 'founding fathers' of the UK games industry.

In 2020, the company began to publish PC and console games with Max Everingham joining from Team17 to head up a new division.

[8] Kwalee is the Australian Aboriginal for “wait for me,” used as the name for a sailboat belonging to David Darling's grandfather, who taught him electronics.

[10] This team works with third-party developers to help their games reach a wider audience by signing and publishing them under the Kwalee brand.

[15] Kwalee offers an opportunity to all of its employees in the form of its 'Creative Wednesdays', where any member of staff is encouraged to pitch ideas for games on a weekly basis.

[19] Since the success of Teacher Simulator, Kwalee donated 100% of the game's UK profits obtained during the first week of the school term to FareShare, in their efforts to tackle child food poverty in the United Kingdom.