ManaMind, an AI company developing autonomous testing systems for video games, has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round.
The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures, with participation from EWOR, Ascension, SyndicateRoom, and Heartfelt. The funding will support product development and team expansion as the company builds its AI-driven quality assurance platform for game studios.
What The Company Does
Founded by Emil Kostadinov and Sabtain Ahmad, ManaMind is building AI agents designed to automate quality assurance in game development. The platform is designed to continuously play through video games at scale, identifying bugs and generating structured reports that developers can act on directly.
Rather than relying on manual testers to repeatedly execute gameplay scenarios and document issues, the system integrates testing into the development pipeline. This allows studios to detect problems earlier and reduce the time spent on repetitive debugging tasks.
The company is also developing proprietary visual models tailored specifically for virtual environments, aiming to improve accuracy in detecting issues that occur within complex game worlds.
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Market Context / Industry Background
Game development has become increasingly resource-intensive as modern titles grow in size, graphical complexity, and interactive systems. Quality assurance has expanded into a significant cost centre, often requiring large teams to manually test gameplay across multiple environments, platforms, and edge cases.
At the same time, studios are under pressure to shorten development cycles and deliver frequent updates, particularly in live-service games. This has increased demand for automation tools that can reduce bottlenecks without compromising quality.
AI-driven testing tools are emerging as part of a broader shift toward automation in software development, where repetitive validation tasks are being delegated to machine-based systems rather than human testers.
Alongside this, game studios are beginning to explore agent-based systems capable of simulating player behaviour at scale, allowing developers to detect bugs, balance issues, and progression bottlenecks earlier in the production cycle. These systems can run continuously across builds, providing real-time feedback that previously required extensive manual testing cycles. As game engines become more complex, integration between AI testing tools and development pipelines is becoming more important, particularly in large studios managing multiple concurrent projects. Over time, this is expected to reshape QA teams, shifting their focus from manual execution to oversight, scenario design, and validation of automated systems. The long-term impact could significantly reduce development costs while improving release stability and player experience across platforms globally.
Founder / Investor Commentary
Chief executive and co-founder Emil Kostadinov said the goal is to shift developer focus away from repetitive testing work and toward creative game design. He described gaming as the company’s initial entry point, but emphasised a broader long-term ambition.
He noted that ManaMind is building a specialised visual model for virtual environments due to the precision required in game testing, and added that the company ultimately aims to extend its autonomous testing systems beyond games into general software and robotics applications.
Growth Plans / Use Of Funds
The new funding will be used to expand ManaMind’s engineering team and accelerate development of its proprietary AI models. A portion of the capital will also support international expansion as the company works with early design partners, including Included Games and Crazy Labs.
While gaming remains the first commercial focus, the company plans to adapt its autonomous testing infrastructure for broader software systems over time, with potential applications in robotics and other complex digital environments.
About ManaMind
ManaMind is an AI company founded in 2025 and based in London. It develops autonomous agents that automate quality assurance in video games by playing games at scale, detecting bugs, and generating structured reports. The platform is designed to reduce manual testing effort and improve development efficiency, with longer-term ambitions to extend into wider software and robotics testing systems.
