Social games platform Little Umbrella lands $2 million in funding

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AI-powered social games platform Little Umbrella has raised $2 million in a seed funding round. 

Little Umbrella said it will use the funds to scale its live ops operations and fast-track the launch of new titles powered by Playroom, its cross-platform social game kit. 

Investors who participated in the latest round include Virtual Reality Fund (VRF), a16z speedrun, Mark Pincus’s Workplay Ventures, Ubiquoss Investment, Disrupt.com, Breakpoint Ventures, GFR Fund, and angel investors Matt Bilbey and Ryan Peterson all participated in the round. 

Little Umbrella is creating social games using AI with a focus on cross-platform gameplay and adaptive mechanics. Their game, Death by AI, launched last year and quickly gained over 20 million players in three months. It’s available for free on Discord, web, and iOS. 

Bold new experiences 

“We start with fun, familiar gameplay as a strong foundation, then layer in innovative mechanics that evolve dynamically with every session,” said Little Umbrella CEO and founder Tabish Ahmed. “Our mission is to craft social experiences tailored to players and their communities.”

“Just as Zynga harnessed Facebook for massive reach, we’re leveraging modern social platforms like Discord to create bold gaming experiences. We believe AI plays a pivotal role in keeping these games fresh, personalized, and primed for global scale.”

Ahmed has had stints at Meta as a design leader in the development of Horizon Worlds. Little Umbrella’s chief business officer, Sean Webster, also previously served as VP at AppLovin, while CTO Timothy Johnson brought innovation to Gallium Studios.

a16z speedrun general manager Josh Lu added: “Little Umbrella’s vision for integrating adaptive AI into social gaming represents a transformative opportunity in the gaming industry, unlocking new ways to play.” 

From left: CTO Timothy Johnson, CEO and founder Tabish Ahmed (middle) and chief business officer Sean Webster (right)