Berlin-based social gaming company SLAY has raised a $5 million seed funding round, led by Accel (invested recently in French company H), with participation from Laton VC, HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun, King Co-Founder Riccardo Zacconi, Popcore Co-Founder Johannes Heinze, Supercell Co-Founder and CEO Ilkka Paananen, and Tripledot Co-Founder and CEO Lior Shiff.
SLAY will use the funding to build an immersive social gaming platform for its highly engaged users and developers to create their own content and engage more deeply with its popular virtual pets game, Pengu.
What does SLAY do?
Founded in 2022 by Berlin-based co-founders Fabian Kamberi, Jannis Ringwald, and Stefan Quernhorst, SLAY has released several successful gaming titles and apps designed to foster positive social interactions.
Its popular gaming titles include Frfr, the AI voice messaging app for Instagram stories, and the first AI social product to top charts worldwide. Pengu, SLAY’s most successful title, is a virtual pets app where users raise their own digital penguin.
SLAY’s games and apps have been well-received, collectively attracting more than 2.5 million monthly active users, 650k daily active users, and over 10 million downloads. Its revenues in 2024 to date are already 10x 2023’s revenues.
Future plans of the gaming company
The company plans to enhance the Pengu user experience by launching new customisable games and characters. It will also release features for users to better interact and socialise with each other on the platform, including AI features for communicating and playing with other players’ Pengus.
In addition, the company offers a developer platform where users and commercial studios can create their own content and worlds in Pengu.
Fabian Kamberi, SLAY’s Co-Founder and CEO, said: “We believe in a social gaming ecosystem where great products bring people joy while encouraging authentic connections with friends and family. Distribution is the hardest problem in games right now and only happens if you build a shareable platform that facilitates product-led growth. We’ve identified a scalable playbook through Pengu, the perfect place to maximise your creativity and imagination, and have been delighted with the virality and organic growth it’s achieved. We are excited to be announcing today’s investment to help expand the ecosystem, so people can play, stay connected, and create new and exciting content in a positive environment.”
Luca Bocchio, Partner at Accel, added: “We’re excited to continue our partnership with the talented team at SLAY as it looks to expand and strengthen its existing ecosystem and IP. As gaming expands its hold on entertainment and popular culture, the way consumers interact with the medium becomes inherently more social, expanding the market opportunity significantly. We look forward to the next stage of SLAY’s journey.”
