Dusk, a new social platform for building and playing multiplayer games, announced today that it has raised $8 million in a new funding round. Makers Fund and byFounders led the round, with participation from gaming founders Ben Liu (PocketGems), Thomas Hartwig (King) and Adi Rathnam (Kamkord). The company plans to use the funding to build out the platform.
Dusk offers a platform for game developers to create social multiplayer titles on mobile using the Dusk SDK, which handles latency and networking and works cross-platform on web browsers. During the beta period, devs made games across multiple genres. For players, Dusk offers a social experience that includes voice chat, customizable avatars, and group chats among other social features. According to the company, beta users have played Dusk’s games on voice chat for 50 million minutes.
Sanjay Guruprasad, Dusk CEO and co-founder, said in a statement, “Dusk completely reimagines social multiplayer gaming for the mobile generation. Existing gaming platforms target a more hardcore audience playing on PC and console. Gen Z wants fun, casual games that they can play together on their phones as they share a laugh on voice chat. This funding is a testament to the confidence our investors have in our vision to revolutionize how social multiplayer games are built and played on mobile.”
Ryann Lai, general partner at Makers Fund, added, “Our investment in Dusk is driven by the belief that the next groundbreaking social app will center around gaming. We are inspired by Dusk’s potential to empower a new generation of creators and reshape social gaming experiences with its lightweight, voice-first, group-hangout format.”
