Google bet on Stan, Indian social games platform

Google has supported StanAn Indian social games platform linking players with creators, societies and publishers.

Google’s investment comes as part of a $ 8.5 million stock financing round, which also saw investments from Japanese Games Bandai Namco Entertainment, Square Enix and Reazon Holdings. Aptos Labs and King River Capital also participated, as well as general supporters of General Catalyst and GFR. Google joined the tour via Artificial Intelligence Futures Fundany Firing In May to support the construction of startups using artificial intelligence tools.

Stan, whose headquarters in Singapore is trying to place herself as a gaming community platform to compete with Discord, but her approach to the market is completely different. Stan allows users to gain a currency inside the app called “precious stones” by winning games like Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India or Garena’s Free Fire Max, Minecraft or Call of Duty or unofficial titles like Ludo and Snakes & Widesders.

The app also allows creators to prepare chat rooms called clubs, which are designed for each game on the platform. While anyone can join these clubs, it needs to push a social currency to reach the “game experiences” provided by creators. The startup takes a commission of these transactions.

The basic gravity seems to be the currency within the application, as it can be replaced by voucher on various e -commerce platforms such as Amazon, Phonepe and Flipkart. Users can also win the currency through referrals and a wheel that revolves around winning and daily rewards.

It seems that the Stan liquefaction model is what distinguishes it: users can gain rewards through reactions, unlike Discord, as you do not gain chat or participate in user societies a lot, regardless of influence.

However, Stan wants the shadow of the dispute. The company claims that it has already obtained more than 25 million downloads on the Play Store and the application store completely, and it has about 5.5 million users per month.

“Stan is the place of Hangout for the players. It is a place where the players come and make friends, play with each other, talk to each other, and a kind of social fusion and games,” said Barth Chadha, co -founder and CEO of Stan.

Chad is attributed to the platform features to attract them so far. Initially, creators had to contact the company’s team to start broadcasting, but last year, the start of the statute of the content that was created by the user, allowing anyone to live. The CEO said this shift helped to push both downloads and participate.

Stan also works with games, studios and developers, including Krafton, Garena and Roblox, who pay starting to connect them to players and creators on the platform.

Chadhha told TECHRUNCH that in the past two quarters, nearly 100 gaming, studios and developers have joined the platform, and it brings more than 20 on board every month.

“This turns into a very interesting business stream and we are talking,” he said.

In the future, Stan plans to take advantage of Google’s support to use artificial intelligence to improve moderation.

Chad said that 70 % to 80 % of moderation on Stan is already treated by artificial intelligence. The human moderation team runs the rest, but starting starting to reduce this using artificial intelligence.

In addition, STAN aims to bring tool groups working with the same Amnesty International for creators, including the ability to produce deities andmeal, as well as tools for fast responses and filter chats.

“There are a lot of interesting delivery and operating models, in which we and the Google team work together to take advantage of business and expand their scope,” he said.

Stan is not the first Indian start -up company supported by the Google Fund from Ai Futures. This distinction goes to ToonsutraStartup using artificial intelligence to run Overwhelming comic reading experience.

Google confirmed to Techcrunch that it has invested more than $ 5.5 billion in India so far, including in TONSUTRA, STAN, Pixxel and AdDA 24×7.

Although the Stan app is currently directed to India, the platform still witnesses 5 % -6 % of its participation from users abroad, who often arrive with Indian phone numbers and their accounts. During the next year, it plans to start international expansion, starting from the Indian subcontinent, and will be targeted later in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The CEO said that the startup was profitable for a few months, but he decided to spend some money on expansion. Now, it aims to achieve profitability in 2027.

Currently, the startup employed about 40 people, of whom less than 30 are working in product engineering.

With this increase, the total stock financing in Stan is about $ 15 million.