Scriptic is a London-based studio developing a dynamic catalogue of interactive phone-first shows and pioneering creative applications of generative AI in entertainment. In a recent development, the company just announced the second close of its seed round with $6.2 million.
The investment came from the Sony Innovation Fund and it brings the second close of Scriptic’s seed round to $6.2 million. This follows the investment led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Tower 26, the Amazon Alexa Fund, and additional and returning investors in June. With this, the company’s total seed round accounts for $8.7 million.
Scriptic will use the fresh capital to grow its content pipeline of interactive, phone-first shows, and activates its user-generated content (UGC) strategy by putting its AI-powered creator tools into the hands of external writers and storytellers.
Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director-EU of Sony Ventures Corporation, which manages Sony Innovation Fund, said: “Scriptic is emerging as a front-runner in the future of interactive entertainment, and we are excited to be partnering with the team for the next chapter of their growth journey in an area where we see tremendous opportunity. Scriptic’s highly scalable, efficient and sophisticated mobile-first approach pushes the boundaries of interactive content, and we believe the company’s UGC offering has the potential to take this further by empowering the creativity of millions of everyday storytellers.”
Nihal Tharoor, CEO and co-founder of Scriptic, said: “It’s a huge honour to have Sony Innovation Fund join our roster of stellar investors, and we’re thrilled that they share our vision for the future of interactive media and storytelling.”
Deploys generative AI for content production
Formerly known as ElectricNoir, Scriptic was founded in 2018 by Nihal Tharoor and Benedict Tatham in London. Through collaborations between human writers and generative AI, Scriptic is developing a dynamic catalogue of interactive phone-first shows that sit at the intersection of film and games, putting audiences in control of the action.
The company’s approach makes content efficient to produce, easily scalable, and highly accessible for consumers, while its emphasis on immersive interactivity has seen its titles attract both traditional gamers and mainstream entertainment consumers. Scriptic is also one of the first entertainment companies to leverage generative AI tools in a production capacity, having first used ChatGPT and DALL-E in 2021 to help with content production.
The studio’s growing catalogue of shows includes titles in the crime, comedy, horror, and court-room genres with plans to explore others. Its flagship show, Dead Man’s Phone, was nominated for a BAFTA in 2020 and re-launched on Netflix as the highly popular Scriptic: Crime Stories in 2022.
