Drivetime Launches World's First Game for Drivers, Announces $4M Seed Funding from Marquee Investors

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Nov 07, 2018, 10:14 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Drivetime, the world's first interactive entertainment company developing voice games for drivers, today announced $4 million in seed funding from a syndicate of technology and media investors spanning Silicon Valley, New York City and Los Angeles. Participation came from Felicis Ventures, Fuel Capital, Steadfast Venture Capital, Webb Investment Network, Sinai VC, Canaan Partners, Access Ventures, Founders Fund, Index Ventures and The Chernin Group, along with a number of prominent angel investors including Zynga co-founders Mark Pincus, Eric Schiermeyer and Justin Waldron, Applovin founder Adam Foroughi, Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, Bright.com founder Eduardo Vivas and former Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda.

Drivetime also announced the launch of its first product, the Drivetime mobile app (available now for iOS, Android coming soon), which allows drivers to play trivia against friends, family and fellow commuters - safely, using just their voices.

With the voice-powered Smart Speaker revolution firmly underway in the home, but yet to make its way into the car, Drivetime is targeting the final frontier still untouched by interactive entertainment. "There are over 110 million commuters in the United States driving to and from work by themselves every day - shouldn't we be able to play games while we do so?" asked Niko Vuori, founder and CEO of Drivetime.

"Collectively, Americans spend 2.5 billion hours driving every month and it's exciting to support Drivetime's vision to bring more interactive - yet safe - entertainment to people's commutes. We believe the time is right for gaming to emerge as a compelling use case in the car," said Chris Howard, Founding Partner of Fuel Capital.

Drivetime was founded by Niko Vuori, Justin Cooper and Cory Johnson, industry veterans who bring years of experience at the leading edge of two recent gaming revolutions: building on top of social platforms at Zynga, and building on top of mobile platforms as co-founders of Rocket Games. "Voice-powered interfaces are the next platform in technology - and whenever a new platform emerges, gaming quickly rises to become a dominant activity," said Aydin Senkut, Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures, and an early investor in Angry Birds developer Rovio.

"We are thrilled with the caliber of our syndicate of investors," said Niko. "Our mission is to bring fun and laughter into the car through interactive social games, and with the capital we have raised, and the partners we have rooting for us, we are very well-positioned to go after the blue ocean opportunity that is interactive entertainment in the car."

About Drivetime

Drivetime, founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., is the world's first interactive entertainment company developing voice games for drivers. The company was founded by Niko Vuori, who was GM of Zynga Poker and a co-founder of Rocket Games (acquired in 2016 by Penn National Gaming); Justin Cooper, who was VP of User Experience at Zynga and a co-founder of Rocket Games; and Cory Johnson, who was a Principal Software Engineer at Zynga and Director of Engineering at Rocket Games. Drivetime is funded by a syndicate of technology and media investors from Silicon Valley, New York City and Los Angeles, including Felicis Ventures, Fuel Capital, Steadfast Venture Capital, Webb Investment Network, Sinai VC, Canaan Partners, Access Ventures, Founders Fund, Index Ventures and The Chernin Group, along with a number of prominent angel investors including Zynga co-founders Mark Pincus, Eric Schiermeyer and Justin Waldron, Applovin founder Adam Foroughi, Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, Bright.com founder Eduardo Vivas and former Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda.