Social gaming platform STAN raises $8.5 Mn in Series A round

Social gaming platform STAN has raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round with participation from leading Japanese gaming giants, including Bandai Namco Entertainment INC., Square Enix, and Reazon Holdings, as well as Google's AI Futures Fund and Aptos Labs. The funding round also witnessed participation from existing investors, including General Catalyst, GFR Fund, T Accelerate Capital, and Pix Capital.

Prior to this, the company had secured $4.5 million in pre-Series A funding from investors like GFR Fund, Aptos Labs, Pix Capital, Maelstrom Fund, and returning investors like General Catalyst.

The proceeds will be used to expand its presence in India and other mobile dominant markets, invest in AI-led personalizations and creator tooling, and launch new integrations for publishers and partners looking to build inside gaming led communities, STAN said in a press release.

Co-founded in 2022 by Parth Chadha, Rahul Singh, and  Nauman Mulla, STAN is a mobile native social platform for gaming creators, publishers, and communities. With tools for live audio, creator clubs, and real time monetization, the platform makes it easy to connect, grow, and activate gaming culture.

The platform enables creators to build and monetize communities through shoutouts, subscriptions, and brand led activations; offers publishers native distribution powered by creator engagement.

"We have built STAN with India at the core and the user at the centre. Every product decision is grounded in what drives real value for our creators and communities. In the last two years, we have grown 25 times purely through product led growth," said Parth Chadha, co-founder and CEO of STAN.

STAN claims to have over 25 million downloads and a strong user base in India’s tier 2 and tier 3 markets. It mainly competes with Discord, which is another player in this space.