ManaMind, a London-based developer of AI agents for video game quality assurance, has raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding led by Sure Valley Ventures. The platform deploys autonomous agents that play games like humans, detect bugs including edge cases, and generate reports and dashboards. The capital will expand the team, accelerate the proprietary HiveMind vision-language model, and scale to more studios.
AI QA Funding Accelerates
The raise follows Nunu.ai's $6M seed in March 2025 for similar multimodal AI testing agents. Established players like modl.ai have secured $10.8M, while GameDriver raised $7.9M. ManaMind's no-integration, video-and-audio-only approach targets multiplayer live service games where scripted tools fall short.
Manual QA Costs Soar
Game development costs for AAA titles reach $150-300M, with QA forming a major expense amid cross-platform complexity and live service updates per market analysis. Traditional manual testing proves unsustainable as content volume explodes, leaving edge cases undetected. Studios face pressure to ship faster without expanding headcount.
Vision-Only Agents Play Human-Like
ManaMind's AI agents require no code access or engine integration, using screen capture for 24/7 testing across platforms. The proprietary HiveMind model outperforms OpenAI and Google models in bug detection within virtual environments according to company benchmarks. This enables massive scaling of multiplayer bot swarms, uncovering issues traditional tools miss.
Plug-and-Play Beats Engine Ties
Unlike GameDriver's Unity/Unreal frameworks needing setup, ManaMind operates externally for any engine. Compared to modl.ai's agents, it emphasizes human-like autonomy in complex scenarios. Early design partnerships with Included Games and Crazy Labs validate production use.
As CEO Emil Kostadinov noted:
"We're automating the manual, time-consuming parts so studios can focus on building amazing worlds. We've developed our own proprietary visual model specifically for virtual environments because gaming demands that level of precision. Gaming is our launchpad, but our vision is to build the autonomous testing layer for all software and, ultimately, robotics."
Sure Valley Backs UK Game AI
Sure Valley Ventures led the round, joined by EWOR, Ascension, Syndicate Room, and Heartfelt. This investor mix signals conviction in AI for gaming's $250B ecosystem, blending deeptech expertise with scale-up support. EWOR's backing of CEO Kostadinov as a top 0.1% fellow underscores founder validation.
Testing Market Doubles by 2033
The game testing services market stands at $1.9B in 2024, projected to reach $3.8B by 2033 at 10% CAGR. AI-powered testing hits $412M in 2024, fueled by 90% of developers already using AI tools per Google Cloud survey. Square Enix plans AI QA adoption by 2027, amplifying demand.
PhD AI Duo Drives Tech Edge
CEO Emil Kostadinov, an Oxford MBA and EWOR fellow with six prior ventures, pairs with CTO Sabtain Ahmad, PhD in AI from TU Wien researching scalable ML. Their complementarity—business scaling and frontier tech—secured early traction out of stealth in 2025. The two-person core raised $1.5M amid commercial pilots.
GDC Push Signals US Scale
Post-funding, ManaMind targets a Founding AI Engineer hire with $10k referral bonus and joined the UK Trade Mission to GDC for US studio outreach. Funds accelerate HiveMind for broader studio rollout, building on partnerships amid live service QA bottlenecks.