Jest Emerges From Stealth With $7 Million

<p><strong>SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cts&period;businesswire&period;com&sol;ct&sol;CT&quest;id&equals;smartlink&amp&semi;url&equals;http&percnt;3A&percnt;2F&percnt;2Fjest&period;com&amp&semi;esheet&equals;54433775&amp&semi;newsitemid&equals;20260225524544&amp&semi;lan&equals;en-US&amp&semi;anchor&equals;Jest&amp&semi;index&equals;1&amp&semi;md5&equals;7e2526f1e1d7c074a1178d8388206d96" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"nofollow noopener" shape&equals;"rect">Jest<&sol;a>&comma; a company building the world’s first marketplace for messaging games&comma;  has emerged from stealth with &dollar;7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors&period; The company is also announcing its Jest Games Fund&comma; which offers up to &dollar;1 million per title&comma; to accelerate the ecosystem and help developers build the next generation of instant&comma; high-retention titles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Driven by the rapid global adoption of RCS&comma; Jest uses messaging as a frictionless distribution channel &&num;8211&semi; positioning it as the first viable challenger to the mobile app store monopoly&period; Early partners developing for the platform include leading studios such as Pocket Gems &lpar;Episode&rpar;&comma; Global Worldwide &lpar;Kingdom Maker&rpar;&comma; HayHay &lpar;Puppy Mansion&rpar;&comma; Nowwa &lpar;Super Snappy Go&rpar;&comma; HG Point &lpar;Piece of Cake&rpar;&comma; and Dominion Games &lpar;Opps&rpar;&period;<b><i><&sol;i><&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jest will use its seed funding to scale the platform and onboard the first wave of studios&period; The company is capitalizing on three massive industry shifts&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul class&equals;"bwlistdisc">&NewLine;<li><b>Conversational Interfaces Go Mainstream<&sol;b> &&num;8211&semi; Messaging is no longer just communication &&num;8211&semi; it’s an interface&period; From ChatGPT to customer support bots&comma; users have grown accustomed to interacting with technology through chat&period; Jest builds on this shift by enabling players to discover&comma; play&comma; and stay connected to their favorite games through a conversational surface&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>The Shift to Instant Experiences<&sol;b> &&num;8211&semi; Modern smartphones&comma; faster 5G networks&comma; and mature web technologies have removed the need for traditional app installs&period; Players increasingly expect experiences that launch instantly&comma; without downloads or storage costs &&num;8211&semi; making instant&comma; no-install games a natural evolution of mobile gaming&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>The Rise of RCS<&sol;b> &&num;8211&semi; RCS is now enabled by default across both Android and iOS&comma; turning the smartphone messaging inbox into a rich&comma; interactive surface&period; Unlike push notifications &&num;8211&semi; limited in format&comma; length&comma; and interactivity &&num;8211&semi; RCS supports persistent&comma; app-like experiences inside a conversation&comma; dramatically expanding what developers can build and how users engage&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As millions of mobile apps and games compete for new users amid a decline in app store downloads and soaring acquisition costs&comma; it’s increasingly clear that the app store business model is outdated&period; Messaging is the first open&comma; global distribution channel to offer developers a fundamentally new distribution and engagement model&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Deyan Vitanov&comma; CEO and Co-Founder of Jest&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Messaging fundamentally reshapes the retention curve by meeting players where they already are &&num;8211&semi; in their text threads&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To seed the next generation of iconic messaging games&comma; Jest is introducing the Jest Games Fund&period; The fund is designed to support both indie and established studios in building&comma; launching&comma; and scaling messaging game titles&comma; including the adaptation of existing IP for the Jest platform&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Jest Games Fund supports studios at every stage of franchise development on the Jest platform and has begun deploying &dollar;1M for flagship&comma; &dollar;200K for promising&comma; and &dollar;40K for exploratory titles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Key benefits for developers building on Jest include&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul class&equals;"bwlistdisc">&NewLine;<li><b>Instant Reach&colon; <&sol;b>Messaging games launch instantly &&num;8211&semi; no downloads&comma; no waiting&comma; and no friction between discovery and play&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>Keep 90&percnt; of Revenue&colon;<&sol;b> Developers keep 90&percnt; of revenue on Jest&comma; with the platform subsidizing 100&percnt; of messaging costs &&num;8211&semi; compared to the 30&percnt;&plus; fees and added distribution costs typical of app stores&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>Easy to Build&colon; <&sol;b>Jest’s SDK turns messaging into a simple API call&comma; handling infrastructure&comma; carrier integrations&comma; compliance&comma; and liability so teams can focus on building great games&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Every major gaming platform has been defined by a new distribution surface&comma;” said Dror Berman&comma; Founder and Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Jest is opening a new one inside messaging&comma; giving developers direct access to global audiences beyond the app store model&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;