Voice-controlled game developer Volley closes Series C fundraising with $55m

Voice-controlled game developer Volley has closed its Series C fundraising round and secured $55m.

It follows Volley's Series A round in 2020, and Series B round in 2022, both of which were led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Round C was co-led by Microsoft’s M12 Ventures and Lightspeed again, with participation from Causeway Media Partners, General Catalyst, Amazon Alexa Fund, BITKRAFT, Y Combinator, Boost VC, Alumni Ventures, Waverley, Gaingels, and Riverside.

Volley – which was founded by Max Child and James Wilsterman in 2016 – says it is the highest-grossing AI-powered game company and the leading creator of AI-powered games for smart TVs and Alexa devices, engaging over 5m players each month.

It uses speech recognition, natural language processing, large language models, and speech synthesis to "create seamless, simple, joyful entertainment."

“This latest funding round will accelerate our development of new voice-controlled, AI-powered games,” Child, who serves as CEO, said.

“Large Language Models and other emerging voice AI technologies are allowing us to create entirely new categories of games that weren’t previously possible. We’re thrilled to grow our portfolio of titles and reach new customers with the support of Microsoft and Lightspeed.”