AI x Game Development: Sett Emerges from Stealth with $27M
A new player just stepped onto the board — and they’re already backed by some of the biggest names in gaming and venture capital.
Tel Aviv-based startup Sett has officially emerged from stealth mode with a total of $27 million in funding, raised in two tranches. The latest, a $15M Series A round, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Saga VC, Vgames, and Akin Babayigit, founder of Tripledot and now head of Arcadia Gaming Advisors. Sett’s earlier $12M seed round came from F2, Bessemer, and leading gaming angels.
🏗️ What’s Sett Doing:
Sett builds AI agents to help studios develop and market mobile games faster and cheaper — reportedly 15x faster and 25x cheaper than traditional pipelines. Their product focuses on automating the creation of interactive in-game moments and “playable ads”, which have become essential for user acquisition but are notoriously expensive and time-consuming to produce.
With user-level tracking limited on iOS, the next big frontier in UA is creative content. Sett’s AI helps fill that gap, using in-game aesthetics to craft engaging ad experiences that boost discovery and conversion.
🧠 Why It Matters:
As CEO Amit Carmi puts it: “It’s pretty easy to build games, but almost impossible, statistically, to make one successful.” In a $100B market where $29B is spent annually on UA alone, reducing the cost and time of creative production is a major unlock.
Sett has already onboarded major players like Zynga, Scopely, Playtika, SuperPlay, Rovio, Plarium, Candivore, and even Unity, with 100+ studios on a waitlist.
🔥 Timing & Competitive Context:
In a timely twist, AppLovin — one of Sett’s would-be competitors — is selling its gaming assets to Tripledot for $800M (not $900M as initially projected). The deal helps AppLovin double down on AI-driven marketing tools, like its SparkLabs division, which already produces automated playable ads.
Sett is taking a similar route — but with the added advantage of its own game engine and agentic layer, allowing it to generate code directly and potentially scale into deeper aspects of game development over time.
💡 Is AI Taking Over Game Dev?
Sett’s founders don’t see their AI replacing full game teams — at least not yet. But Babayigit calls the opportunity a “no-brainer,” praising the tech and team. While many companies are dabbling in creative AI (like Agave), Sett is one of the few building full-stack, production-grade tools for marketing and game content.
📌 Key Takeaways:
- $27M total funding (Seed + Series A)
- Investors: Bessemer, Saga VC, Vgames, F2, Arcadia
- Clients: Zynga, Rovio, Playtika, Unity & more
- Claims: 15x faster, 25x cheaper creative production
- Focus: Playable ads + in-game interactive content
- Competitive angle: Positioning next to AppLovin’s SparkLabs
- Strategic goal: Help games stand out in a $100B+ market
This is more than just a funding round — it’s a signal that AI-powered creative pipelines could become the new norm in mobile game publishing.
Source: TechCrunch
