Written by Dante Uzel on 07 March 2025 14:04
German indie developer Welevel has secured $5.7 million in funding, led by Bitkraft Ventures. The studio plans to use the investment to enhance its in-house AI platform and expand its core team "twofold" in preparation for its upcoming AAA sandbox survival game. The project, which has been in development since 2021, is expected to enter early access in 2026.
Additional investors include BMWK, Goodwater, and several angel investors such as Chris Carvalho (Roblox board member), Daniel Weinand (Shopify co-founder), Heiko Hubertz (Bigpoint founder), Kun Gao (Crunchyroll co-founder), Nate Mitchell (Oculus co-founder), Ralf Reichert (ESL co-founder), and Mario Götze.
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"AAA development needs a massive amount of resources and budget which indie game studios usually do not have," said Welevel CEO Christian Heimerl. "Having used AI in my former companies, I recognised the potential it has to empower small, passionate teams to produce games. In the past four years, our team has engineered tools and an AI platform that allows us to not just rival AAA studios, but surpass them with a living, breathing world. With Bitkraft, we found a partner who shares our passion and vision."
Bitkraft Ventures partner Jasper Brand added: "While it is a tall order for an emerging studio to take on AAA ambitions in a large genre, especially in the early stages of AI adoption in gaming, we believe that lean teams who rethink development and break current limitations in time and scope will unlock unprecedented gameplay and distribution vectors."
Tags: Welevel
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