Inworld AI closed a Series A round.

Inworld is a developer platform for creating AI-driven virtual characters for gaming, metaverse, and business applications. It was founded by conversational AI pioneers Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Michael Ermolenko, and Kylan Gibbs to enhance the social interactions in the immersive worlds of gaming, metaverses, entertainment, and brand experiences.

The $50 million Series A round was led by Section 32 and Intel Capital and included participation by Founders Fund, Accelerator Investments LLC, First Spark Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, BITKRAFT Ventures, CRV, Microsoft’s M12 fund, Micron Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, SK Telecom Venture Capital, NTT Docomo Ventures, and The Venture Reality Fund. (Businesswire)

Inworld uses advanced AI to build characters that exhibit the personalities, thoughts, memories, and behaviours typical of interaction between human beings in a social setting. Because the platform is amenable to “no-code,” the creation of such imaginative AI characters is possible even by writers, designers, and creators without knowledge of advanced coding. These characters can also be integrated with the popular game engines such as Unreal and Unity for ultimate deployment into games.

The latest raising brings Inworld’s total funding to approximately $ 70 million since its founding in July 2021. The company closed its seed round in March 2022.

“In the last year, we’ve seen research that shows that online relationships can be as meaningful as those formed in real life. With Inworld, you can create gaming NPCs (non-playable characters), native populations for virtual worlds, virtual influencers, brand representatives, in-world guides, and digital humans that can forge relationships with users and unlock deeper engagement,” said Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Inworld CEO. “This is the future of entertainment–stories that are told through characters with a rich inner life, that audiences are invited to participate in, and take immersion to the next level.”

Related Story: Grayscale’s Report Paints The Metaverse As The Next Emerging Market Investment Frontier