Yahaha Studios, a platform for building no-code, immersive games, raised $50M in 3 rounds ahead of its launch this year

techcrunch.com:

The success of Roblox and other user-created gaming experiences like Overwolf have democratized the concept of making games and have taken it into the mainstream. Now, a startup founded by veterans from Unity, Microsoft and EA that is building a new platform for creators to build immersive games, and related communities around like-minded people, is gearing up to launch later this year. Ahead of that, it is disclosing a healthy $50 million in funding.

Yahaha Studios, an Espoo, Finland-based startup with R&D based in Shanghai, has yet to launch a commercial product. But it describes what it is building as a no-code “metaverse for games”, where people can come together in communities to build and play games combining virtual and real-world elements.

The $50 million that it has raised, to be clear, is not new funding: it was pulled together in a period of six months, across three rounds, nearly two years ago, all in 2020.

The company tells me that “round 1” was led by 5Y Capital; “round 2” was led by HillHouse, and “round 3” was led by Coatue. Early investors participated in subsequent rounds, and other backers include ZhenFund, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, BiliBili and Xiaomi. The funding, we’ve confirmed, values Yahaha in the range of $300 million to $500 million (“few hundred millions” is the phrase that was used when we asked).

While Yahaha Studios may still be months from launch, in the meantime it has been quietly running a Discord community with a small group (around 220) of early users. The company tells me that an alpha version of the product will be launching in Q2 of this year. It is not planning to raise any more funding ahead of that, a spokesperson tells me.

“Metaverse” has very quickly become a very over-used