I’ve been playing this online dinosaur game called Apex Predator.
It works much as you’d expect: You start off as a small, feathery compsognathus, and work your way up to velociraptor status (and beyond) by, well, being the apex predator. I know it sounds gruesome, but it actually evokes “Pacman with dinosaurs” and is even rather cute. It was also built through AI—with natural language prompting—by a creator called “nuvu” on a website called Astrocade, where there are thousands of games created by AI-fueled text prompts.
“If you go into a classroom and ask ‘how many people play games?’ everyone says ‘I play,’” said Ali Sadeghian, Astrocade cofounder. “If you ask ‘how many of you want to create games’, 80% will say they want to create a game. But if you ask ‘how many of you have made a game,’ only one or two people will raise their hands. For a long time, it wasn’t possible. This makes it possible.”
In 2022, brothers Ali and Amir Sadeghian—both PhDs with prior startup experience—cofounded Astrocade after Ali’s work at Google Research convinced them AI would facilitate sweeping change to how games are made and played. Finally, in August, after years of building with a lean team of 13, they launched.
Now, eight months later, Astrocade has about five million monthly active users, clocking about 140 million game plays each month, and hosts more than 75,000 games built by creators from 80 countries. The company has raised $56 million in new funding, Fortune has exclusively learned. This $56 million includes a Series A (led by Sea) and a Series B, led by Sequoia Capital. Other investors include Google, Nvidia, LG Ventures, Dentsu Ventures, and Conviction Embed. And the user base, yes, includes the classroom-aged, but mostly skews older than you’d imagine.
“The target user for this company is very unintuitive,” said David Cahn, partner at Sequoia. “Women between 20 and 40 are the best users. You’d think it’s younger boys—10 to 15, that classic gaming segment—but that’s not really who this is…In that sense, I think it competes more against Instagram, where it’s just a fun way to spend time.”
Astrocade is hard to categorize. I was imagining a Roblox-esque endgame, but there’s a better comparison, the Sadeghian brothers said.
“We’re actually most inspired by YouTube, the way they nurture their creators,” Amir said. “We believe the content [on Astrocade]…in the age of doomscrolling can be interactive, creative, happy.”
In part, the task of Astrocade, Ali said, is that it facilitates the beginning of a new era in the creator economy, one that’s already materializing.
“Our top creators are making thousands of dollars a month,” Ali said. “They’re literally making a living and their content is fun.”
Games can be serious business, and the history of Silicon Valley tells us as much. The rise of Atari was one of venture capital’s first great wins, and let’s not forget that GPUs (which even Nvidia can’t get enough of) were originally built for video games. I asked Cahn about the historical parallel he’d point to: He said the mobile gaming boom (where we all moved to our phones) is worth considering, as is the rise of Silicon Graphics—where everyone may have been fighting over the best console, but it wasn’t the console that mattered most.
“The Silicon Graphics chip is like AI: If you embrace the underlying technology, you’re going to build something really powerful,” said Cahn, who suggests the books Masters of Doom and Console Wars, if that’s your jam.
Looking ahead, for Astrocade, engagement isn’t the only metric that matters.
“One of our metrics: When someone is on Astrocade and leaves Astrocade, are they happy?” Amir said. “Happiness is a KPI for us.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.
Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.
VENTURE CAPITAL
- Sierra, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents designed for customer experience, raised $950 million in funding. Tiger Global and GV led the round and were joined by others.
- Windward Bio, a Basel, Switzerland-based developer of immunology therapies, raised $165 million in crossover funding. OrbiMed led the round and was joined by existing investors Novo Holdings, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, SR One, Omega Funds, and others.
- Panthalassa, a Portland, Ore.-based renewable energy and ocean technology company, raised $140 million in Series B funding. Peter Thiel led the round and was joined by John Doerr, TIME Ventures, SciFi Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Hanwha Group, and others.
- Reserv, a New York City-based platform designed to help insurers process claims using AI, raised $125 million in Series C funding. KKR led the round and was joined by existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Flourish Ventures, and others.
- DeepInfra, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI inference partner, raised $107 million in Series B funding. 500 Global and Georges Harik led the round and were joined by A.Capital Ventures, Crescent Cove, Felicis, Nvidia, Peak6, Samsung Next, Supermicro, and Upper90.
- Barocal, a Cambridge, U.K.-based developer of heating and cooling technology, raised €8.6 million ($10 million) in seed funding from World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, and others.
- Astrada, a San Francisco-based data layer for autonomous finance, raised $3.8 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures, QED Investors, and Nyca Partners led the round and were joined by others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- COEO Solutions, a portfolio company of Riata Capital Group, acquired S-NET Communications, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based managed technology provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Traffic & Mobility Consultants, a portfolio company of Grovecourt Capital Partners, acquired Chindalur Traffic Solutions, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based traffic and transportation engineering firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Turpaz Industries acquired Phoenix Flavors & Fragrances, a Norwood, N.J.-based developer of flavor and fragrances for food and beverage, personal care, and industrial products, from SK Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Redwood Services acquired the Sierra Platform, a Las Vegas-based residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services provider, from SE Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Cerebras Systems, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AI infrastructure company, plans to raise up to $3.5 billion in an offering of 28 million shares priced between $115 and $125 on the Nasdaq. The company raised $510 million in sales for the year ended Dec. 31. Alpha Wave, Benchmark, Eclipse, Fidelity, and Foundation Capital back the company.
- Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, a New York City-based real estate investment trust, plans to raise $1.8 billion in an offering of 87.5 million shares priced at $20 on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Fervo Energy, a Houston-based geothermal energy company, plans to raise up to $1.3 billion in an offering of 55.6 million shares priced between $21 and $24 on the Nasdaq. Devon Energy, Capricorn Investment Group, DCVC, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Centaurus Capital back the company.
- GMR Solutions, a Lewisville, Texas-based emergency medical services provider, plans to raise up to $797.5 million in an offering of 31.9 million shares priced between $22 and $25 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $5.7 billion in sales for the year ended Dec. 31. KKR, Koch, and HPS back the company.
- EagleRock Land, a Houston-based land management company, plans to raise up to $346 million in an offering of 17.3 million shares priced between $17 and $20. The company posted $72 million in sales for the year ended Dec. 31.
- Odyssey Therapeutics, a Boston-based biopharmaceutical company, plans to raise up to $237.6 million in an offering of 13.2 million shares priced between $16 and $18 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $3 million in sales for the year ended Dec. 31. SR One Capital Management, OrbiMed Private Investments, Fidelity Mt. Vernon Street Trust, Fidelity Series Growth Company Fund, Jeito Capital, TPG, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Dimension Capital back the company.
- Mobia Medical, an Austin, Texas-based developer of medical devices, plans to raise up to $160 million in an offering of 10 million shares priced between $14 and $16. The company posted $32 million in revenue for the year ended Dec. 31. U.S. Venture Partners, GPG Healthcare Opportunities Fund, Osage University Partners, Lyda Hunt – Bunker Trust – Elizabeth H Curnes, Synapse Investment, Coöperatieve Gilde Healthcare, and Longitude Venture Partners back the company.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- BMW i Ventures, a Mountain View, Calif.-based venture capital fund, raised $300 million for its third fund focused on AI, industrial technologies, and advanced materials companies.
- THL Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, raised $6.4 billion for its tenth fund focused on middle-market companies in financial technology and services, health care, and technology and business solutions.
PEOPLE
- Overture Ventures, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, promoted Leila Pirbay to Partner.
