Talofa Video games has secured $6.3 million in seed funding to construct health video games for good.
Centered on the concept of “wholesome gaming,” the San Francisco firm is the brainchild of Jenny Xu, a aggressive health fanatic who has run two marathons.
Talofa Video games just lately launched the 1.0 model of Run Legends, a cooperative and aggressive social health sport.
Chamaeleon spearheaded the spherical with contributions from A16Z Video games Speedrun, Foundation Set Ventures, Perception Companions, 1Up Ventures, and a roster of strategic traders.
I met Xu when her crew gained the grand prize for the Niantic Past Actuality Contest in 2019. For that contest, Xu and her household created Run to My Coronary heart. Then going by JC Delicate, the corporate created a social working sport constructed on the Niantic Actual World Platform, the place you needed to run in the true world to sure places so as obtain targets within the sport.
By 2021, the corporate developed into Talofa Video games. Now it has eight folks whose work has collectively generated greater than 10 million downloads.
“Having made video games for thus lengthy, I really like simply having that scrappy vibe and doing coding myself,” Xu mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat.
Run Legends
The Run Legends sport combines bodily exercise with compelling cellular gameplay.
Xu introduced the sport’s testing interval in mid-2023, and the crew did the formal 1.0 launch a few weeks in the past. Throughout that point, the beta neighborhood grew from 10,000 folks to 370,000 gamers. On the peak, there have been 55,000 concurrent exercises taking place on the identical time.
“We’ve had gamers telling us they misplaced 5 or 10 kilos in a single month. So I feel simply the affect has been fairly clear,” Xu mentioned.
Gamers interact in real-time cooperative battles by strolling or working alongside associates, fostering an immersive and wholesome gaming expertise. These battles, lasting 5 to fifteen minutes, are meticulously designed to permit gamers to take part with out continuously gazing their telephones. So as to add an additional layer of engagement, gamers can unleash particular battle expertise based mostly on their motion pace and earn rewards via their in-game Gear.
“Health and gaming don’t must be mutually unique, and we’re extraordinarily proud to construct a sport that permits gamers to enhance their well being whereas having enjoyable and enjoying with associates,” mentioned Xu. “We look ahead to working with our gamers to scale this new social health expertise and create a happier, more healthy world.”
The seed funding will play a pivotal position in fueling the continued growth of Run Legends and future “video games for good” initiatives by Talofa. The sport is at the moment obtainable without cost on each iOS and Android platforms.
Xu mentioned the crew seen that a lot of the mileage folks placed on the sport is whereas strolling, as folks play whereas they’re strolling as a substitute of working. Gamers can arrange every day step targets or play extra passively, making the sport extra accessible for people who find themselves health inexperienced persons, Xu mentioned.
“We need to hold making Run Legends higher,” she mentioned.
Partnerships like one with the American Crimson Cross final 12 months might be value wanting into. And the crew is contemplating making new video games as properly.
Investor views
Xu mentioned that the sport obtained traction within the beta interval in 2023, and that enabled the fundraising course of to go simpler regardless of the powerful enterprise capital setting. She mentioned she selected to go together with traders who had been in it for the lengthy haul.
Nuno Goncalves Pedro, managing companion at Chamaeleon, mentioned in an announcement, “Gaming is in a league of its personal. It’s the final interactive media, and it mixes cutting-edge expertise with really artistic and distinctive content material. It’s our nice pleasure to have the ability to be part of Jenny and her crew at Talofa on her quest to create constructive habits at scale.”
Talofa’s seed funding will allow the corporate to proceed to engineer and develop Run Legends in addition to different “video games for good”. The sport is at the moment obtainable without cost on iOS and Android.
“Gaming is in a league of its personal. It’s the final interactive media, and it mixes cutting-edge expertise with really artistic and distinctive content material. It’s our nice pleasure to have the ability to be part of Jenny and her crew at Talofa on her quest to create constructive habits at scale,” mentioned Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Founder and Managing Accomplice at Chamaeleon.
“We imagine that video games are our underlying social material and core to the human expertise,” mentioned Robin Guo, gaming funding companion at A16Z Video games, in an announcement. “Talofa is mixing the perfect of gaming, health, and social with Run Legends, designed so that you can have enjoyable with your mates and get match whereas doing it. Jenny has constructed many profitable indie video games previously with JCSoft, and now she and her crew are taking their skills to innovate on one thing new at this intersection of gaming x health.”
“Jenny and your entire Talofa crew are pushing the boundaries of what’s attainable on the intersection of gaming and health,” mentioned Lan Xuezhao, managing companion at Foundation Set, in an announcement. “We’ve seen this crew execute from day one and know they’re able to essentially altering the way in which folks construct wholesome habits with their associates. It’s pure for folks to be aspirational about their well being and hungry for neighborhood, and we’re excited to assist create a way forward for health that’s each gamified and multiplayer.”
Wanting ahead
The corporate is hiring product managers, designers, engineers and others. The crew will keeyp attempting to make Run Legends higher, including extra modes and updating the software program.
Xu mentioned she is captivated with health. She has run two marathons, and he or she mentioned she did the final one in two hours and 56 minutes, or about 6 minutes and 40 seconds per mile. She has additionally made video games since she was 12.
“I simply love the house and need to make a distinction,” she mentioned.
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