- Reforged Labs raises $3.9M.
- AI-powered platform streamlines game ad creation.
- Human creativity remains crucial.
Game on, ad makers!
A Singapore-based startup recently closed a $3.9 million seed round led by DCM, aiming to revolutionize mobile game advertising through generative AI.
Founded in September 2023 by Robert Huynh and Oscar Xing Luo, this venture develops a subscription-based platform for end-to-end video ad creation.
The funding round saw participation from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Phoenix Fund, and several angel investors from the gaming sector, including a co-founder of Axie Infinity creator Sky Mavis and Sebastian Knutsson, co-founder of Candy Crush developer King.
From pixels to profits
The innovative AI model, trained specifically on game mechanics, automates repetitive tasks in ad creation.
This empowers marketing teams to focus on high-value activities like trend analysis. Pilot customers have reported a 5.5x faster ideation process and a 27% increase in average return on ad spend.
The platform covers everything from idea generation and storyboarding to optimization of ad variations.
Targeting both independent studios and major gaming firms, the startup has already onboarded 10 pilot customers since pivoting to this model in February. Despite leveraging AI capabilities, the founders emphasize the importance of human oversight. “Human creativity is sacred,” says CEO Huynh.
Their platform generates ad creatives based solely on existing gameplay data, addressing concerns about AI hallucinations in advertising.
Huynh stresses that the goal isn’t to replace jobs in the games industry but to handle repetitive work often outsourced.
The team, consisting of 10 full-time employees, works remotely across Singapore, Vietnam, and the US.
They plan to use the funding to train their AI model further and add more computational resources.
To read the original article: https://www.techinasia.com/reforged-labs-lands-3-9m-to-power-game-ads-with-ai
