PANews reported on August 5 that according to TechCrunch, Indian social gaming platform STAN announced the completion of US$8.5 million in equity financing, led by Google AI Futures Fund, and followed by Japanese gaming giants Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Reazon Holdings, Aptos Labs, King River Capital, General Catalyst, GFR Fund and others.
The STAN platform allows users to earn in-app currency called "Gems" through competitive games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Mobile, and allows creators to set up chat rooms called "Clubs," which are channels tailored for each game on the platform. Joining these Clubs requires paying a social currency to access the "gaming experiences" provided by the creators, and the company takes a commission from these transactions. Gems can be redeemed for vouchers on major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, PhonePe, and Flipkart. STAN has been downloaded over 25 million times from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, with approximately 5.5 million monthly active users.