SPARQ Secures $8.5M Seed Round for AI-Native Game Engine
SPARQ, a UAE-based startup developing an AI-native game engine, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding with early support from a16z’s Scout Fund. While the scout fund contributed to the round, the majority of investors remain undisclosed.
The company, founded by Christopher Pail and Christoffer Wilhelmsen, has been developing its proprietary C++ engine for two years before launching this round. They raised $2.5 million from their own capital and assembled a team of over 20 engineers. A 6,000-person creator waitlist has expressed interest in beta access.
SPARQ aims to empower creators by providing scaffolding, code, assets, networking, multi-platform publishing, and monetization tools while allowing them to maintain creative control. They position themselves as a competitor to Roblox, which has integrated AI tools into its platform, and other third-party tools like Lemonade and BloxBot.
Despite claiming a $300 billion gaming market, the current estimate from Newzoo is closer to $205 billion for 2026. Nevertheless, SPARQ believes there’s a significant gap between content creator tooling and game creator tooling, presenting an opportunity in this competitive space.
The startup is based in Ras Al Khaimah’s Innovation City, a free zone promoting AI, gaming, Web3, and robotics startups with fast company setup and blockchain-based business identities.