5Y News | Metaverse UGC Platform "YAHAHA" Closes $40 Million Series A+ Round

YAHAHA, a metaverse UGC platform, has officially announced the completion of its $40 million Series A+ funding round, co-led by Temasek and Alibaba, with 37 Interactive Entertainment participating and Taihe Capital serving as exclusive financial advisor. The proceeds will be used for product iteration, community ecosystem development, and team expansion. The company released the Alpha version of its product in April 2022, with users overseas already able to download it on PC/Mac and mobile devices, and users can interact across platforms on the same server. As of October, YAHAHA's product has attracted over 100,000 registered users. As the product is further brought to market, the YAHAHA team has also expanded to nearly 200 people, with offices in Shanghai, Finland, Seoul, and other locations, and the company will reportedly establish additional offices in other regions and recruit local teams.

5Y Capital supported its Series A1, A2, and A3 rounds continuously from the earliest stage. Cheng Yu, Partner at 5Y Capital, said: "Two years ago one evening, I first met YAHAHA founder Chris to discuss his startup idea. Because we shared the same vision for the 3D internet, and more importantly because I was inspired by his determination and passion, we signed a term sheet with him that very night. Over the past two years, we've seen YAHAHA unfold step by step according to the future Chris described back then. The team has gone through countless sleepless nights, and after investing hundreds of engineer-years of effort, YAHAHA has produced a preliminary product with global leadership and scarcity, and the globalization that began from day one of its founding is starting to show results. The curtain on the '3D internet' has just opened, and the democratization of 3D interactive experience creation and consumption is critical. I believe YAHAHA will become a key company in this wave."

YAHAHA Founder & CEO Chris said: "YAHAHA's product achieved encouraging growth even during the Alpha testing phase, with over 100,000 creators registering and creating content on the YAHAHA platform, laying a solid foundation for the platform's subsequent development. The completion of this funding round also marks that YAHAHA will explore more possibilities in developer experience and commercialization. At the same time, we will continue to build our creator community through brand partnerships, working alongside top talent in game development and 3D content assets."

Image source: YAHAHA

Founded in 2020 with dual headquarters in Shanghai and Helsinki, Finland, YAHAHA's core founding team consists of veteran Unity employees. With a mission to democratize 3D content creation and consumption, YAHAHA's 3D content creation tools will help any creator with creative ability build their own games, worlds, and social spaces. YAHAHA's creation tools allow creators to build a game through simple drag-and-drop, no-code methods. For user groups with different creative capabilities, the tool also offers strong scalability and ceiling. In its two years since founding, the company has raised nearly $100 million in total funding.

YAHAHA 3D Content Creation Tool (Image source: YAHAHA)

YAHAHA will use this round of funding to comprehensively iterate its product, continuing to provide creators with more complete creation tools and new features by combining AI and cloud processing capabilities. In addition, a feature module to help creators monetize their content will soon be introduced, with details to be released in the near future. YAHAHA also plans to continue expanding its professional no-code developer community through accelerators, global community events, Game Jams, and creator workshops.

Currently, YAHAHA has built a nearly 200-person global team across offices in Shanghai, Finland, and Seoul, among other locations, and will establish offices and hire local teams in North America and the Asia-Pacific region following this funding round. To accelerate the building of its content ecosystem, YAHAHA has planned partnerships with multiple well-known brands to create related content on the platform by combining with brand IP, reaching more diverse user groups. At the same time, YAHAHA will also announce new strategic partnerships with industry partners and studios in the near future. Core players in 3D content assets with which it has already established partnerships include Unity, Synty Studios, CGTrader, and Dabeeo.

Chris said: "YAHAHA's vision is not limited to leading the next generation of content entertainment formats; the greater significance lies in how we can help the next generation of creators produce quality content belonging to them through our IVWP (Integrated Virtual World Platform) platform and tools. There are tremendous opportunities awaiting us in the future virtual world, and we will continue to invest in building better team and community ecosystems, and maintain our leadership in the next wave of entertainment."

YAHAHA's product is currently open for experience. Welcome to visit yahaha.com and unleash your imagination.

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