Board, the new game startup from Mirror founder Brynn Putnam, raises $20M, has already sold thousands - BERITAJA

Board, the three-year-old, New York-based startup building what it calls “together tech” — tech designed to bring group physically into the aforesaid room — has closed a $20 cardinal Series A led by Union Square Ventures.

General Partner Michael Mignano, successful his first finance since joining USV, will subordinate the company’s committee of directors. The information besides brought successful immoderate celebrated angel investors including Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Belsky.

The raise comes about 8 months aft laminitis Brynn Putnam — who antecedently sold connected fittingness startup Mirror to Lululemon for $500 cardinal — unveiled Board publicly astatine TechCrunch Disrupt past October.

The Board instrumentality is simply a 24-inch touchscreen successful a wood-finish framework that uses proprietary exertion to admit beingness crippled pieces, blending the tactile consciousness of committee games pinch the interactivity of video games.

Traction since motorboat has been strong, the institution says: Board is now successful tens of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and restaurants crossed each 50 states, pinch 85% of customers averaging 30 aliases much play sessions per month.

Alongside the funding, Board announced Board Studio, an AI-powered creation level launching later this twelvemonth that will fto anyone build original games utilizing earthy connection prompts — from thought to playable prototype successful nether an hour, it says.

Board had antecedently raised $15 cardinal successful backing led by the task patient Lerer Hippeau, which had besides led Mirror’s $3 cardinal seed information years earlier. That was a stake that paid disconnected handsomely erstwhile Putnam sold the connected fittingness institution to Lululemon successful 2020.

Putnam sees Board arsenic a earthy hold of what she learned about user hardware while building Mirror. “Mirror was very overmuch about me,” she erstwhile told TechCrunch. “It was my reflection, my performance, it was about making your ain aforesaid better. At that adjacent phase, my life was really conscionable overmuch much about my family and my friends and my relationships.”

The consequence is simply a merchandise built about the elemental but progressively celebrated thought that the champion usage of tech mightiness beryllium to get group to put their devices down and look each different successful the face.

The raise arrives astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile user tech, agelong retired of favour pinch investors, is showing signs of bouncing back, driven successful ample portion by what AI is making recently possible.

“I’m much excited about user than I’ve been successful a agelong time,” said Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau, precocious past twelvemonth during a separate sit-down pinch TechCrunch. “We’re seeing a very high-quality group of founders saying, ‘Now’s the clip to get backmost successful the pool.’ There are things that are imaginable coming that weren’t imaginable six months agone aliases a twelvemonth ago, and the slope is steep.”