Inworld AI, a San Francisco, CA-based Character Engine for games and interactive experiences, raised a new funding round of undisclosed amount at a valuation of over $500M.
Backers included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Stanford University, Samsung Next, Microsoft’s M12 fund, First Spark Ventures co-founded by Eric Schmidt, and LG Technology Ventures. Moritz Baier-Lentz, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, who is joining the company’s board of directors.
The company, which has now raised over $100m in total funding, will use the capital to accelerate research and development, hire talent, invest in infrastructure, and launch an open-source version of its Character Engine.
Founded in 2021 by experts that have pioneered conversational AI platforms and generative models at API.AI (acquired by Google and renamed Dialogflow), Google, and DeepMind and led by Ilya Gelfenbeyn, CEO, Michael Ermolenko, CTO, and John Gaeta, Chief Creative Officer, Inworld uses advanced AI to build generative characters whose personalities, thoughts, memories, and behaviors are designed to mimic the deeply social nature of human interaction.
The platform allows developers to link Inworld’s character brains to their animation and rigging systems, including in 3D environments. Smart NPCs can learn and adapt, navigate relationships with emotional intelligence, have memory and recall, and are capable of autonomously initiating goals, performing actions, and following their own motivations that can drive the narrative and integrate with the broader player experience.
The new investment follows the company’s AI-driven non-player character (NPC) experiences with Team Miaozi (NetEase Games), Niantic 8th Wall, LG UPlus, Alpine Electronics, and in community-created mods of Skyrim, Stardew Valley, and Grand Theft Auto V.
FinSMEs
02/08/2023