AI-Based Game Engine Developer Apollo Studio Secures Seed Funding from Kakao Ventures and KB Investment

Development of AI Game Engine 'F-1'
Automating the Entire Game Creation Process with Natural Language Input

On October 21, Apollo Studio, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based game engine developer, announced that it has secured seed funding. This round was co-led by Kakao Ventures and KB Investment, with participation from Base Investment.

Apollo Studio is developing F-1, a next-generation AI game engine that enables anyone to easily develop and distribute games using AI. By simply entering a natural language prompt, users can automate the entire process of game planning, design, development, and distribution, creating a 'Prompt to Game' environment. Within about a month, completed games can be showcased across various channels such as Instagram, YouTube, and the web.

F-1 combines an engine structure optimized for learning game data with a globally standardized open-source design, enhancing performance through user participation and maximizing the usability of the game engine. The goal is to address the AI blind spots in the gaming industry and introduce a new paradigm to the global game engine market, which is valued at 47 trillion won. With this investment, Apollo Studio plans to accelerate the development of its game engine and unveil the first demo version of the F-1 engine in the second half of next year.

Apollo Studio is led by CEO Cho Sungmin, who previously worked as a high-performance AI trading engineer at Goldman Sachs. The team also includes AI engineers from JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, as well as talents who have conducted AI research at institutions such as Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Columbia University, and Cornell University. Some team members have founded and exited startups prior to joining Apollo Studio.

Ahn Hyewon, Senior Investment Manager at Kakao Ventures, stated, "Apollo Studio is a rare team that possesses robust technological capabilities, deep understanding of the gaming industry, and global startup exit experience. I am confident that they will set a new standard for global game development driven by AI."

Cho Sungmin, CEO of Apollo Studio, said, "We aim to go beyond simply building a game engine to fundamentally redefining how AI creates games and to establish a new 'language of game creation.' We will focus on enhancing our technological completeness and expanding globally, so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can create and share games."