Transcend initially invested in Bunch’s unique ability to build smooth social experiences around games that players love. Creating a neighborhood vibe and a sense of community and belonging is deceptively difficult even in one game, doing so outside of and across many games is exponentially harder. With their app adding seamless video chat overlay to mobile games, Bunch has created a place on your phone where it feels like your friends are.
Bunch began as a way for people to keep connected while playing their favorite games on their phones. Since their launch in 2017, millions of mobile gamers around the globe have used Bunch’s video overlay while playing games, exploring online, or just hanging out—a very useful app these days to keep friends and family in contact.
Now, with the newly announced Bunch 2.0, gamers are headed into Bunch’s fuller vision of a metaverse where they can party up and jump into their favorite games together. Parties of players can move between favorite games like Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox using Bunch 2.0 as a bridge between experiences and home base when taking a break from gaming. Using Bunch’s developer platform, game developers can also build party functionality into their games while tapping into Bunch’s existing community of players.
This announcement follows their late 2020 Series A financing round where multiple major game studios invested including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, and Krafton. Since then, Bunch has seen more than 100,000 daily active users staying connected through their top ranking group video chat app and had their team grow from 20 to 37.
Congratulations to the team at Bunch on their successful pivot to embrace the metaverse! I’m excited to see this new version of Bunch connect all kinds of gamers as it’s rolled out worldwide.
About Transcend Fund
Transcend is a top performing early stage venture capital firm that partners with the boldest founders in the industry to collaboratively build the future of interactive entertainment.
Founded in San Francisco by gaming veterans, the Transcend portfolio features a preeminent group of high growth digital entertainment companies around the world.
More information about Transcend can be found on our website. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news from around the Transcend ecosystem.
About Shanti Bergel
Shanti is the founding partner of Transcend and a 30 year game industry veteran.
His global operating experience spans every major platform and business model transition of the last several decades and is animated by a career-long fascination with how changes in technology and distribution affect products, services, and communities.
Shanti is a recognized member of the Techcrunch List, speaks fluent Japanese, and is a frequent speaker on early stage investment, M&A, and strategic partnerships in digital entertainment.