Led · Seed · Jul 2024

Founded in 2023 by John Lusty and Junaid Hussain, Iconic.AI is building an AI-native entertainment platform that embeds small language models directly on a player’s device to power real-time, voice-driven game play. The technology lets every spoken word reshape in-game worlds, creating highly personalised narratives without cloud latency, privacy compromises or connectivity costs. Iconic.AI’s first public demo, the narrative puzzle title "The Oversight Bureau," debuted with NVIDIA at Gamescom and was praised for its immersion and responsiveness. Beyond enhancing player experiences, the platform is designed to lower development complexity and cost, allowing studios to experiment with new game genres. The company’s growing team includes talent from Unity, Meta, Sony, Microsoft and major franchises like GTA and Star Wars, and is led by CEO Andrew Bowell, former Product Head at Unity. While revenue or user metrics have not been disclosed, the fresh capital equips Iconic.AI to advance its on-device AI engine, expand its game catalogue and support partner studios.

Led · Equity · Apr 2024

Kaikaku develops an automated robotics and hardware platform for restaurants, including a machine-learning inventory-management system, custom 3D-printed food-safe materials, and a parallel dispensing robot that assembles dishes in 26 seconds. The startup uses food cartridges that hold up to 50 portions and has patented its parallel dispensing method and a 3D food-printing mechanism. Kaikaku launched London’s first robotics-driven restaurant — a 'common room' — to demonstrate the technology and test a thesis about selling higher-margin assembled food bowls. The company says it launched about 10 months ago and is led by cofounder and CEO Josef Chen. Its business model envisions licensing the technology or franchising the store if the retail test proves successful. Kaikaku secured $1.8 million in fresh funding and plans to hire staff to accelerate hardware development. Kaikaku is a startup working at the intersection of the food industry and robotics, building hardware and software services. The article does not describe specific products, technology, or detailed plans. On 19 July 2023 Kaikaku raised $750k in pre-seed capital from angel investors in the UK. Investors named in the coverage include Anirudh Pai, HodlCo, Josef Chen, Kemal Cenan, Piers Kicks, Paul Klanschek, 7percent Ventures, Tai Lin, Yuki Soga, Charlie Songhurst and Junaid Hussain. The article provides no revenue, user metrics, or other operating metrics. No future roadmap, founding year, or company headquarters are reported in the article.