AI startup and developer Echo Chunk has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed funding round.
Led by A16z Speedrun, the money raised will support further development of its free-to-play daily puzzle game Echo Chess.
Other investors included Mark Pincus (founder and chairman of Zynga), Eric Wu (co-founder and CEO of Opendoor), Stefano Corazza (head of generative AI at Roblox), Ajinkya Apte (CEO of Snapser), and Patrick Wyatt (co-founder of ArenaNet).
Albert Lai (co-founder and former CEO of Kontagent), AI researcher Joon Park, angel investor David King, South Park Commons and Founders You Should Know also participated in the funding round.
"We're honoured to be supported by top minds in tech and games to bring the Echo Chunk vision to life, and to leverage the power of AI in game design," said Echo Chunk founder and CEO Sami Ramly.
"These amazing partners immediately understood our passion for AI's role in the co-creation process of the future."
Josh Lu, partner at A16z, added: "We firmly believe that AI will enhance the ingenuity of game designers, and the Echo Chess team has demonstrated this brilliantly with their debut title by using AI to put a fresh spin on their daily game.
"They've done so really quickly with a very small team, and have already built a passionate community of players and speedrunners with fresh content every day."
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