Google bets on STAN, an Indian social gaming platform

Google has supported StanAn Indian social gaming platform that connects gamers with makers, communities and publishers.

Google’s investment comes out as part of a share financing round of $ 8.5 million, which also saw investments from Japanese gaming giants Bandai Namco Entertainment, Square Enix and Reazon Holdings. APTOS Labs and King River Capital, as well as existing Backers General Catalyst and GFR Fund, also participated. Google came through his round AI Futures FundWho was launched in May to support startups with his AI tools.

Stan, with headquarters in Singapore, tries to position itself as a gaming community platform to rival Discord, but the approach of the market is very different. Stan let users earn users called “Gems” by winning games such as Krafton’s BattleGounds Mobile India, Garena’s Free Fire Max, Minecraft, Call of Duty, or casual titles such as Ludo and Snakes & Ladders.

With the app, makers can also set up chat rooms that are called clubs, those channels that are tailor -made for every game on the platform. Although everyone can join these clubs, they have to pay a social currency to gain access to the ‘gaming experiences’ that makers offer. The startup takes a committee of these transactions.

However, the primary attraction seems to be the in-app currency, because it can be exchanged for vouchers on various e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Phonepe and Flipkart. Users can also earn currency through references, a spin-to-win wheel and daily rewards.

It seems that the monetization model of Stan distinguishes it: users can earn rewards through interactions, in contrast to Discord, where chat or participate in communities does not earn many users, apart from influence.

Nevertheless, Stan Discord wants shadows. The company claims that it has already collected more than 25 million downloads in the Play Store and App Store, and it has around 5.5 million monthly active users.

“Stan is the meeting place for gamers. It is a place where gamers come to make friends, play with each other, talk to each other, a kind of merger of social and gaming,” said Parth Chadha, co-founder and CEO of Stan, in an interview.

Chadha credits the functions of the platform for his traction so far. Initially, makers had to contact the company’s team to stream, but last year the startup opened the platform for content generated by users, so that everyone could go live. That shift helped to stimulate both downloads and involvement, the CEO said.

Stan also works with game -publishers, studios and developers, including Krafton, Garena and Roblox, who pay the startup to connect them with gamers and makers on the platform.

Chadha told WAN that in the past two quarters almost 100 game -publishers, studios and developers have joined the platform, and it brings more than 20 on board every month.

“That will be a very interesting business stream while we speak,” he said.

Looking ahead, Stan is planning to use the support of Google to use AI to improve moderation.

Currently, 70% to 80% of the moderation on Stan is already handled by AI, said Chadha. A human moderation team manages the rest, but the startup is planning to reduce it further with the help of AI.

In addition, Stan AI-driven toolkits wants to bring for makers, including the possibility of producing avatars and memes, as well as aids for quick answers and filtering out chats.

“There are many interesting plug-and-play models, which we and the Google team work together to use and scales the company,” he said.

Stan is not the first Indian startup supported by the AI Futures Fund of Google. That distinction goes to Toursutra, a startup that AI uses to have a Immersive comic reading experience.

Google confirmed to WAN that it has invested more than $ 5.5 billion in India so far, also in Startups Toonsutra, Stan, Pixxel and ADDA247.

Although the Stan app is currently limited to India, the platform still sees 5% to 6% of its involvement from users abroad, who often have access to Indian telephone numbers and accounts. In the following year, the startup is planning to expand internationally, starting with the Indian subcontinent, and will later focus on Southeast -Asia and Latin -America.

The startup was profitable for a few months, the CEO said, but decided to spend some money to scale up. Now it wants to achieve profitability in 2027, he added.

The startup currently employs around 40 people; Less than 30 of them work in product technology.

With this increase, the total stock financing from Stan is now around $ 15 million.