AppOnboard, an LA-based startup that offers no-code game development tools, has raised a $20 million Series B, as reported by VentureBeat. The round was led by Raine Ventures, with participation from Galaxy Venture Capital, Manta Ray, London Venture Partners and Gaingels.
Built In last spoke with AppOboard in 2018 when it raised its last funding round, a $15 million Series A. At the time, it was a playable ads company, allowing users to demo games before committing to downloading them. The company got into game development in 2019 when it acquired Builtbox, a no-code engine that helps users to make games without having to program.
Now, AppOnboard offers a suite of tools that let users create 2D and 3D video games and apps without having to code, providing sound and graphics templates, as well as a variety of development tools. These games can then be published on platforms like Apple’s App Store, Google Play and Steam, potentially bringing down the barriers to entry in the games industry that tend to hold indie developers back.
Several successful games have come out of AppOnboard, including Marvel Contest of Champions and Guns of Boom, which have been downloaded millions of times.
“Video games are the next major form of media to be democratized, and we are leading that movement through Buildbox,” founder Jonathan Zweig said in a statement published in the Los Angeles Business Journal. “The next generation are using our tools to express themselves to hundreds of millions of people by building video games.”
Indeed, AppOnboard told VentureBeat it has been experiencing an “influx” in new creators using its Buildbox tool. The platform adds thousands of new users a week and, over the last three months, its global market share has grown by 550 percent.
To keep up, the company plans to use this fresh funding to expand its team across its engineering, marketing and product departments, with several open tech roles available now. AppOnboard also says it wants to double-down on its creator-focused initiatives like closing its user feedback loop, implementing user-centered design processes and releasing more frequent product updates.
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