Popularium Raises $2M Seed Round From Prominent Investors

The company announced at GDC '24 that the public Alpha of its first game, Chaos Agents, will launch in summer 2024 

LOS ANGELES, March 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Popularium today announced the close of a $2M seed financing round, backed by prominent investors as well as games and media executives including Palm Drive Capital, The Data Economics Company, Eden Chen (Pragma) investing via the a16z Scout Fund, Reverb Ventures and Dave Nemetz, Pareto (founded by Edward Lando), Exit Capital, The Society of Entertainment, Bryan Goldberg (Bustle Digital Group, Bleacher Report), Dan Black (Gearbox), Dhani Jones (ex-NFL), and Avi Ben-Menahem (ex-Xbox: Ori and the Blind Forest, Phantom Dust).

This comes on the heels of the success of Popularium's Playtest for Chaos Agents. Chaos Agents is the world's first autobattler-royale, designed by Richard Garfield and developed by Popularium, which was in turn co-founded by Garfield with Arka Ray and Jon Bankard in 2022. Chaos Agents blends the large-scale battle royale with the rapidly growing genre of auto-battlers, made popular by Dota Auto-Chess, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, and the super-hit Vampire Survivors. Popularium will launch the public Alpha for Chaos Agents in summer 2024.

"Chaos Agents is bringing together game design concepts that I have been thinking about for over 20 years," said Richard Garfield. "Getting everything right in a completely new type of game is challenging, and the experience of Popularium, and the support of early investors and members of our community have been vital - there is no amount of planning that can replace the exciting journey that trial and iteration provides. This support will allow us to launch a public Alpha as soon as this summer and bring Chaos Agent to thousands more fans."

In Chaos Agents, players coach and guide a globally unique superhero – their Chaos Agent – to victory in a grand battle royale against dozens of other Agents. Each Agent is globally unique, which means that only one player in the world will be able to play with an Agent at a time, allowing them to become the global expert on that Agent.

"Nearly 50% of the seed financing for Popularium has come from investors who are long-time fans of Magic: The Gathering and other games from Popularium's co-founders," said Arka Ray, President of Popularium. "Many of our investors grew up playing Magic and other games designed by Richard and have a deep connection with his work. Many are also avid Hearthstone players, a game that our co-founder, Jon Bankard, helped develop from its infancy. Being players themselves, they intuitively understand what's exciting about Richard's vision with Chaos Agents and its potential to engage players both emotionally and intellectually. This has drawn these prominent investors to proactively reach out and offer support for Richard's vision at an early stage of development."

"I've been playing Magic for almost 30 years and never get tired of epic battles in the card realm," said Bryan Goldberg, founder of Bustle Digital Group and Bleacher Report and an early investor in Popularium. "With Chaos Agents... these dynamic, ever-changing battles are now real—we can see and experience every moment. Richard and the Popularium team are pioneering a new genre of games—the autobattler-royale—that fans like me have been dreaming about for decades." 

The success of the playtest has been key in driving investment interest, according to Ray and Garfield, and several investors have become prominent members of the Chaos Agents player community.

"Richard and Arka have assembled a world-class game development team at Popularium that balances decades of game design experience releasing blockbuster games with cutting-edge technologists," said Eden Chen, CEO of Pragma, and advisor and investor in Popularium through the a16z Scout Fund. "I am excited to be a part of the Popularium journey."

"Playing Chaos Agents, especially going after the Shards, is one of my favorite gaming activities," said Catherine Cai, partner at Palm Drive Capital. "Even better, as an investor in Popularium, winning medals and earning REP through Chaos matches can now be part of my work!"

"Even years since playing Magic competitively, my 'Sneak Attack' Magic deck remains one of my favorite possessions," said Stephen Cole, founder of Exit Capital and former pro gamer. "When I heard Richard Garfield was creating a new genre of video games, I reached out to see if I could help in some way. I'm thrilled to be an investor in Popularium's seed round and to support the realization of Richard's vision."  

The seed round will help support the public Alpha launch of Chaos Agents in summer 2024.

"The combination of investors who have supported our work at this early stage, as well as the community that is helping us build this game, show us the passion and love that they have for creators like Richard Garfield, who has helped create many cherished memories for us all," said Ray. "The community's support of Richard's vision shows that despite industry headwinds, if game developers build an authentic, lasting relationship with their players, then these players in turn will support such creators and developers, no matter what market conditions might be."

"We are all excited to for the Chaos Agents Alpha this summer," said Garfield. "There are few things as fun as being a part of a growing game community, especially when it means exploring entirely new types of game play."

Players can now sign up for the Chaos Agents Alpha at: https://popularium.com.

About Popularium 

Popularium was founded by industry veterans to develop games that push the boundaries of innovation of game design and economics, while creating experiences that gamers embrace and engage with for years, possibly decades. Popularium's founding team includes Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, King of Tokyo, Netrunner and other hits; Jon Bankard, former product lead for Hearthstone and other games at Blizzard such as World of Warcraft and Diablo; and Arka Ray, from the founding team for Xbox Live and The Data Economics Company. All have developed games and platforms that have created relationships with gamers lasting decades. Popularium's first game, Chaos Agents, is the world's first auto-battler royale, combining the proven battle royale and MOBA genres with the highly engaging Autobattler genre, creating a dynamic, deep strategy experience that's simple to pick up and play but takes a lifetime to master. 

Contact: Chris Gale, [email protected]

SOURCE Popularium