Gardens Interactive raises $35M Series B led by Lightspeed for unannounced social RPG
Summary
Gardens Interactive raised over $35M in a Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Total funding now exceeds $70M.
The studio has disclosed no title, release date or business model.
Investors are backing founder pedigree from Journey and Sky: Children of the Light.
"This funding gives us the room to ship a game of this scale properly, and to keep it alive and evolving for years to come."
01
Lightspeed extends a three-round position in a pre-launch studio
Lightspeed led the round and expanded its ownership in the studio.
Lightspeed and Krafton co-led the July 2023 Series A.
That Series A raised $31.3M.
An earlier seed round raised $4.5M.
Gardens is closing additional investors on a rolling basis.
02
The syndicate pairs tier-1 VCs with publishing and family-office capital
Sequoia, Index Ventures, Accel and Innovation Endeavors joined as new investors.
Zenith Capital founder James Altman will help negotiate the studio's publishing relationships.
Yamauchi No.10, the Nintendo family office, returned as an investor.
Gardens remains its first and only gaming startup investment.
"By any measure, but certainly in 2026, that's an extraordinary vote of confidence and tier-1 syndicate for a pre-launch studio."
03
Board changes tie governance to Lightspeed and Krafton
Former TikTok COO V Pappas joins the board representing Lightspeed.
Mike Hong replaces Maria Park as Krafton's board representative.
Park and Baier-Lentz move into independent advisory roles.
04
Social roleplay retention remains the unproven commercial risk
Project Gardens centers on stranger encounters where cooperation can turn to betrayal.
Retention depends on players generating their own reasons to return.
The studio still seeks publishing, localization and moderation partners.
No player, revenue or valuation figures accompany the round.
05
What to watch
Gardens expects the full Series B round to close by end of month.
What this means
For Investors & VC: Add playtest return-rate evidence to diligence before pricing pre-launch social sandbox studios.
For Service Vendors: Pitch trust-and-safety and live-ops support services now, before a publisher partner bundles them.
For Publishers & Developers: Table co-publishing offers for prestige social studios early, before deeper-pocketed syndicates harden deal terms.
Events
Companies
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Locations
North America
SYNTHESIZED FROM:
- Gardens Interactive, founded by veterans behind Journey and Sky: Children of the Light, raises over $35m in Series B funding round | GamesIndustry.biz
- Gardens Interactive raises $35M ahead of its launch for social role-playing world - GamesBeat
- Gardens Interactive raises $35M for a fantasy game built on cooperation and betrayal
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