Inworld AI, a San Francisco, CA-based character engine for games and interactive experiences, has raised $50 million in new funding, bringing its new valuation to over $500 million.
The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other significant contributors include Stanford University, Samsung Next, Microsoft's M12 fund, First Spark Ventures co-founded by Eric Schmidt, and LG Technology Ventures, along with other strategic investors.
The company will use the funding to accelerate research and development, hire top talent, invest in infrastructure, and launch an open-source version of its Character Engine.
The Character Engine empowers game developers to create AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) with remarkable depth and realism. These AI NPCs exhibit complex and lifelike human behaviors, leading to increased immersion and engagement for players.
Inworld AI leverages multiple machine learning models to enable multimodal character expression, simulating the full range of human communication. Game developers can integrate Inworld's character brains with their animation and rigging systems, particularly in 3D environments.
“The next generation of games will be judged by how immersive the experiences feel,” said Ilya Gelfenbeyn, CEO and co-founder of Inworld. “The Inworld Character Engine offers a transformational shift that brings characters to life with realistic emotions and dialogue, adding richness to the stories and worlds they occupy. Populating experiences with characters that behave with convincing real-time responses and actions will play a substantial role in getting us to the promise of truly interactive entertainment.”
Moreover, Inworld's developer platform introduces an AI layer to Unreal Engine's MetaHumans, enabling game developers to create the most convincing and lifelike characters possible.
Company: Theai, Inc.
Raised: $50.0M
Round: Unknown
Funding Month: August 2023
Lead Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Additional Investors: University, Samsung Next, Microsoft's M12 fund, First Spark Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures
Company Website: https://inworld.ai/
Software Category: AI-based Character Engine for Games
About the Company: Founded in 2021, Inworld is a character engine for AI NPCs that goes beyond LLMs and adds contextual awareness and multimodal expression of personality. 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 Inworld Character Engine is already integrated into several of the industry's top game development engines, and it is featured as a Unity Verified Solution in Unity's AI Marketplace. Additionally, Inworld received an Epic MegaGrant, joining a community of creative and innovative projects built around the Unreal Engine.
Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230802502983/en/ http://www. https://inworld.ai/blog/inworld-valued-at-500-million