Rune

Rune.ai operates as a social gaming platform designed to connect the next generation of gamers. Founded in 2018 by MIT classmates Bjarke Felbo and Sanjay Guruprasad, the company aims to provide a space where users can play games and interact via voice chat. The founders' backgrounds are deeply rooted in technology and academia; Felbo developed machine learning algorithms at MIT as a Marvin Minsky Fellow, while Guruprasad studied Physics at IIT Madras and was pursuing a PhD in Network Effects at MIT before co-founding Rune. Their shared experience at the MIT Media Lab influenced the company's culture, which values creativity and community.

The company's core offering is a mobile application that functions as both a game platform and a social network. It provides game developers with a Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables the creation of multiplayer games without requiring backend code. These games are then launched directly onto the Rune platform, where users can play them together while on voice chat. The platform has hosted over 50 games, from mini-golf to 3D racing, with users spending over 50 million minutes playing together during the beta phase. Initially, RuneMatch, a precursor app, focused on teammate-finding for hardcore mobile games like PUBG, and its growth to over 5 million installs provided key insights for the current platform's direction.

Rune.ai participated in the Y Combinator Winter 2019 batch. The company has secured a total of $2.15 million in funding over two seed rounds. This includes an initial $150,000 from Y Combinator and a subsequent $2 million round in October 2019 led by Makers Fund. Other investors include byFounders, VentureSouq, and angel investor Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail. The firm's business model is currently focused on growth rather than immediate revenue. It does not charge players or display ads within the games. Instead, it compensates developers through a Creator Fund, financed directly by Rune, with payouts based on metrics like player retention and game sharing. Future plans include introducing in-game purchases with a shared currency, from which Rune would take a small percentage to cover platform costs.

Keywords: social gaming, mobile gaming, voice chat, multiplayer games, game development platform, indie games, SDK, Y Combinator, gamer community, player matchmaking, Sanjay Guruprasad, Bjarke Felbo, online social platform, in-game communication, creator fund, Makers Fund, mobile entertainment, social network for gamers, user-generated games