Please welcome MOTHER, the art and entertainment company creating transformative gaming experiences
Meet MOTHER, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: New York
Founders: Kelsey Falter, Raissa Chagas, Nikita Antonov
The problem: Gaming has radically changed over the past several years. As players have become familiar with play passes and mixed session types, evergreen games with legacy intellectual property are struggling to evolve with the needs of players. What was once an industry driven primarily by single-player entertainment now encompasses massive social networks, recurring content delivery requirements, evolving channels of revenue moving from in-app ads to in-app subscriptions and more. However, the gaming industry, particularly mobile gaming, is stuck in an aging paradigm, relying on waterfall development principles and dopamine-driven strategies, akin to social media, in order to harvest attention. As mobile technology and hardware continue to develop, there is a need for a suite of games that can break new ground. With improved mobile streaming capabilities and platform-first approach on the horizon, there is a need to move the industry from a legacy waterfall approach and embrace a continuous delivery cycle with player community involvement.
MOTHER’s solution: MOTHER creates transformative experiences through play. With Le Zoo, the first free-to-play multiplayer game by MOTHER, players take a psychedelic journey through a metaphorical zoo, exploring surrealist landscapes and a library of mini games. The game is designed to expand the inner world of every player who jumps into the zoo all while making you laugh with witty dry humor within the game’s storyline. As you play Le Zoo, your reality will be reflected back to you through emergent mechanics — showing players they are the author of their own reality. Through a hybrid 3D open-world and platform of mini-games, MOTHER is able to test and deploy games more rapidly than industry standard while offering a visually stunning experience. Its wild multi-tiered theme park allows players to interact with an ever-evolving storyline and co-create as the park undergoes “construction.”
Origin story: MOTHER was founded in 2023 by two mothers, Kelsey Falter and Raissa Chagas. We first met Falter when she founded Poptip, a social analysis & NLP platform we invested in back in 2012 which was later acquired by Palantir. The germ of the idea for MOTHER emerged from the journey Falter and Chagas took together, including disillusionment with their respective industries, the paradigm shifts catalyzed by motherhood, psychedelic exploration, and personal mind-body practices. Driven by their vision to make self-evolution fun, Falter and Raissa decided to build a game first, using the very tools that they learned from the inside. Games are one of the most efficient vehicles to neuroplastic expansion, and we are happy to support them with their big vision here.
Why we’re betting on it: MOTHER is pioneering a new frontier of the gaming industry with its delivery approach and focus on added value for players who can engage their consciousness. The company’s emphasis on mental programming and their focus on expanding inner worlds sets them far apart from the crowded field of competitors. MOTHER stands out not only for its mission and philosophical depth, but also for its capital-efficient engineering model, which leverages machine learning alongside human-driven art, AI prototyping, and custom LLMs for NPC character creation and an efficient remote data model for testing and developing new mini-games quickly. Additionally, the founding leadership team members are formidable: Matias Corea (head of design at MOTHER, former co-founder of Behance (acq. Adobe)), Brian Alcazar (executive producer at MOTHER, former lead of GTA 5 (former rockstar games)), Christof Stanits (chief creative engineer at MOTHER, award winning game artist), and Yvgen Kopa (game engineering lead at MOTHER, former Ubisoft engineering lead), round out Kelsey and Raissa’s expertise. We couldn’t be more proud to support Kelsey and Raissa and the team at MOTHER as they launch Le Zoo and give players a new portal through which they can access the power of play.
Our take: We’ve spent decades evaluating, investing in, and operating media and entertainment companies, and we believe MOTHER has discovered a new field of possibility within the gaming world. Further, their bold approach has already attracted a global team of industry veterans who likewise see in the company a path forward for global gaming. By blurring the lines between game and life, MOTHER is generating new zones of gaming experience that will allow players to see the world from an entirely new angle.
Further reading: “New studio Mother Games raises $5m in pre-seed round” via GamesIndustry.biz
Check out MOTHER on Instagram and TikTok, and read more about Le Zoo.