Phynd raises $10M for subscription-free smart TV cloud gaming platform - Related to it, google, makes, easier, ai-driven

Google makes it easier to manage kids’ phones and online lives

Google has given its Family Link toolkit for parents a comprehensive enhancement, making it easier for parents to manage phones and wearables belonging to their children. The redesign has introduced a Screen Time tab, while attributes seen on wearables for kids, such as School Time and contact approval, are coming to Android.

Family Time’s new look makes it easier to manage linked accounts, add content filters, and set privacy restrictions. A new tab called Screen Time has joined the workflow, showing usage times and app information, along with historical data much like Google’s Digital Wellbeing layout and aspects in Android. Parents managing more than one child’s profile can easily swipe between them, and multiple devices are managed on a single page.

School Time lets parents set up a schedule to minimize distractions and interruptions during school hours, and was lately introduced on the Samsung Galaxy Watch for Kids and the Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch. Now it’s coming to Android phones and tablets. Parents will have granular control over which apps are restricted, ensuring school-relevant ones stay accessible, and can add in break times and vacations too.

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Another feature taken from the Galaxy Watch for Kids is contact approval. Parents will be able to add and approve new contacts on an Android phone in the Family Link menu, limiting calls and texts to them. Kids can also make requests to add new contacts, ready for parental agreement. One point to note on this is, Family Link’s contact limit feature only works with Google Messages and the dialer on Android, and won’t stop communication through apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, or other similar apps.

Google’s updated Family Link feature arrives when there’s increased attention on keeping children safe online, and ensuring smartphone use doesn’t interrupt school. Interest in minimizing smartphone usage is a larger topic too, with phone brands like HMD selling feature phones and introducing attributes like Digital Detox to ensure we’re all more mindful of the amount of time we spend on our phones.

The updated Family Link should be available now, with some functions arriving over the next few months.

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The startup uses data collaboration technologies aligned with Indian and global privacy standards to enhance marketing reach and customer engagement.

Phynd raises $10M for subscription-free smart TV cloud gaming platform

Phynd has raised $10 million for its subscription-free smart TV cloud gaming platform. And it comes from an entrepreneur with an interesting pedigree.

Cofounded by tech and media innovator André Swanston, Stamford, Connecticut-based Phynd (pronounced “find”) is poised to make high-quality gaming universally accessible by offering a free-to-play experience on smart TVs and other connected devices.

“Phynd is a subscription-free gaming platform built for smart TVs. It will be available across all devices, but smart TVs is our area of focus,” revealed Swanston, the former CEO of data analytics for streaming services firm Tru Optik, in an .

Over the past five years, more than 500 million smart TVs capable of supporting a cloud gaming app have shipped globally, far outpacing the combined total of gaming PCs and consoles. This massive installed base sets the stage for Phynd’s disruptive entry into the market, he expressed.

Cloud gaming allows consumers to enjoy video games on any internet-connected device, eliminating the need for expensive gaming hardware while keeping games up to date.

Advances in cloud-computing technology and the proliferation of high-speed internet are driving this market, which is projected to grow at a staggering 38% compound annual rate from 2024 to 2032, .

Cloud gaming also opens up a tremendous new advertising opportunity for brands. Currently, video games played on a TV or large screen generate only about 7% of their revenue from ads or sponsors, compared to 50% for the broader media sector.

Phynd connects brand marketers with the elusive big-screen gaming audience through non-intrusive audience-based ads and sponsorships, addressing a longstanding marketing challenge while boosting industry revenues amid rising costs.

For consumers, Phynd offers a compelling value proposition: subscription-free access to high-quality games on devices they already own, unlike other gaming platforms that charge up to $30/month.

Andre Swanston is the CEO of Phynd and previously founded Tru Optik.

Swanston previously revolutionized targeted advertising across smart TVs and smart speakers as the CEO and cofounder of Tru Optik before its nine-figure acquisition. He sees a similar trajectory for Phynd.

“A decade ago, many experts claimed subscription streaming services would be the end of TV advertising,” Swanston expressed. “Today, advertising is set to become the largest revenue source for streaming TV. Consumers love free content, and an advertising-sponsored gaming platform done right is a win for everyone.”.

In 2013, Swanston previously founded Tru Optik, a data and analytics business focused on connected TV (CTV) and streaming media. It was just in time for the era of streaming media, and Tru Optik was acquired by TransUnion in 2020 for over $100 million when Swanston was under 40. Now he is funding Phynd on his own.

“I’ve always been bullish on what the future for gaming would be on smart TVs. And the reason for starting Phynd is seeing this culmination of more people having smart TVs hooked up to broadband internet that have the capacity to support gaming,” he stated.

He noted that people have subscription fatigue when it comes to paid streaming services or video game services.

“We’re just seeing the explosion in the growth of ad -supported solutions,” he expressed. “And so it just felt like the timing was right for a differentiated solution like this — a different ad experience.”.

His first rule? He mentioned, “You can’t have a gaming platform or gaming experience without great games. So obviously, I would say it’s very key. But I think a couple things that I would call out relative to other solutions — the other gaming platforms or cloud gaming platforms or are coming from legacy services — is the others are trying to diversify or mitigate revenue loss or market share loss.”.

The time for ad-supported cloud games has arrived.

Phynd will make gaming accessible to hundreds of millions of TV consumers who don’t own gaming consoles. At the same time, Phynd’s analytic and marketing tools enable studios and publishers to engage and retain these potential gaming audiences more efficiently than across legacy distribution methods.

“We’re excited to support the Phynd team in reshaping the gaming experience, and creating powerful new opportunities for players and developers,” mentioned Jackson Cummings, Head of Wellington Access Ventures, in a statement. “We expect André and his team to leverage their disruptive experience with connected TV in the gaming sector.”.

“Phynd will not only make gaming more accessible to players without consoles and gaming PCs but also create new exciting opportunities for developers and advertisers,” mentioned Elliott Robinson, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “We are excited to support this new chapter in cloud gaming”.

“There’s really no larger experience social engagement, no enhanced discovery,” he noted. “That kind of model has not really evolved to meet the opportunity of the medium of smart TVs. And so I would say one of the big differentiators about us is going to be a real experience for the gamer and community, not just the ability to stream your games.”.

The other thing is that Phynd will be agnostic. The goal is to help publishers and studios more effective reach more players and monetize their content — and help players more easily discover and find content and community.

“We don’t develop or produce our own games, so there’s never this conflict of interest, right? Other big platforms, whether it’s Xbox or Sony or Valve, are also competing with the very publishers and studios that they’re that they’re distributing,” he expressed.

The enterprise will have partnerships with smart TV makers, but it’s not announcing any today. Swanston noted that will likely happen this spring in terms of unveiling TV makers and publishers/developers. He noted he is going after every TV maker, operating system or OEM partner, ad tech partner and ad-supported streaming solution on TVs.

“I’m really excited to be able to leverage some long-standing relationships, both at the OEM level as well as the ad tech level and the content level as we as we roll out,” he introduced.

With the wave of streaming services, the cost per session or cost per hour has dramatically fallen over the last four or five years, Swanston noted. That’s also true for games.

“The proliferation of high-speed broadband internet has grown significantly. One of the big concerns that everybody had in the past was whether they’re going to be enough broadband, enough spectrum to be able to stream in 1080p. Now HD streaming is in 10 million homes concurrently and we’re in 4K across hundreds of millions of homes globally. That is no longer an issue.”.

“You’ll continue to see more announcements of that type. Comcast was a big client and partner of Tru Optik across many different services,” he stated.

For games, he stated the capacity and the potential is much more viable with the opportunity for broadband-based cloud gaming apps on smart TVs.

“When you talk about more capacity and broader potential distribution, that’s a big difference that even 36 months ago you couldn’t have mentioned was there,” he mentioned. “When we look at kind of advertising on the large screen — like gaming PCs, or with smart TVs in their home, hooked up the consoles or what have you — only about 7% of that revenue comes from brand-sponsored media consumption. It could be advertising, could be sponsored quests, sponsored items or experiences, but when you look at the overall media industry, it’s closer to 50%.”.

Streaming TV will be followed by streaming games?

What kind of ad-supported games would you play on your smart TV?

Netflix led the way in subscription revenue to streaming TV. But in the next year or so, Swanston believes more than half of revenue on streaming TV will come from advertising.

“All the real growth has been in the free, ad-supported streaming solutions. That’s what OEMs are relying on to make margins on their TVs. They make nothing from selling the TVs. It’s all the free ad-supported. Every time a console is hooked up to a smart TV and somebody’s gaming on a console, that OEM is losing money because they’re don’t have an opportunity to show to an (ad-supported) show. There’s no value in that for them.”.

But young folks in particular are gravitating to games far more than their elders. Brands and other advertisers have to figure out how to reach them, and it’s clear it has to be through games.

“It’s kind of critical, frankly, for the survival of the industry to be able to engage consumers across gaming,” Swanston showcased. “Where people have failed before is gamers don’t want an intrusive advertising experience. Nobody wants you to pause their game in the middle of their game and force an ad in it. No one wants their session length to be limited where, you can only play for half an hour because we need to show you more ads. So I think the experiences have been very clunky.”.

He mentioned there hasn’t been an ability to do the same level of targeting and measurement and attribution in terms of advertising across gaming that average that that brands are used to across streaming or digital or linear television.

“My last business patented the concept of a household graph and the ability to do that data-driven engagement across smart TVs. I feel like we will be best in class at that pretty early on in making sure that it’s a non-intrusive experience,” he stated.

Over the last 24 months, the experience of cloud gaming has gotten superior than it was, Swanston stated. When Google Stadia came out, the experience was pretty bad. There was no alternative 5G on Wi-Fi solution, most people in the [website] didn’t have fast enough broadband either.

“They were just ahead of their time,” he introduced. “Now the experience is much superior.”.

He noted that the time that it takes for the game to load before you get into the game — that’s when you can see a brand sponsorship or some sort of messaging and sponsored experiences.

“Those are the ways that we’re making the economics of this work,” he noted. “The value proposition to game members is a lot advanced. we make sure that there’s value for everybody across the ecosystem. We believe that there’s opportunity for publishers and studios to diversify their revenue streams and not be reliant on just either charging for the game itself or for the items in the game.”.

He added, “We also know that that the OEM partners are extremely reliant on ways to be able to monetize the media that’s consumed on their on their devices. We also want to make sure that we’re providing opportunities and value for players and indie developers and so forth. We’re not in a situation where we are trying to make money and not bring value back into the ecosystem.”.

He noted that the Samsung Gaming Hub on a smart Samsung TV means that players can play high-end console and PC games on a big-screen TV without owning a console. But he noted that these are paid subscription services available for the most part. With Phynd, you don’t have to already be a gamer, he presented.

The corporation is based in Stamford, Connecticut, and it has around 20 people in the [website] and a similar number overseas. It started about 24 months ago. The corporation did its alpha testing in the summer of 2024. The service should roll out later in 2025.

As far as smart TVs go, Swanston estimates that every TV sold in the last seven or eight years has been a smart TV. That’s a pretty big market.

As far as the number of games available at launch, Swanston expects it could be in the hundreds, as those are the numbers for some of the largest leaders in the market today.

Swanston has no plans to ship his own set-top box, smart TV or console.

“We just want to make it readily, easily accessible through devices people already own. So smart TV is where we believe that we can be a best-in-class solution, for people’s convenience, that want to continue the gaming experience,” he noted. “Whether it’s on desktop or mobile, we will have the ability to do so there, but really that’s more to continue the experience. We want to be the first real solution, to really focus on smart TV and not make smart TV just an ancillary distribution point.”.

One of the questions is where the new smart TV players will get their controllers. With casual games, the neophyte players can use remote controls for the TVs. They can also use their smartphones. And they may need to get their hands on an actual controller, but that’s not an expensive barrier, Swanston noted.

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Inside Mobavenue’s AI-Driven Playbook To Power The Future Of Adtech

The startup uses data collaboration technologies aligned with Indian and global privacy standards to enhance marketing reach and customer engagement.

Can we think of a world without ads? Before high-end digital technologies took over, people came across random product promotions, from the latest luxury cars to get-rich-soon investment schemes. Of late, that scenario has changed. If one is browsing healthy recipes right now, all things fitness and health are bound to pop up on the screen for the next few days. It is a powerful reminder that brands today use hyper-personalised marketing to reach their target audiences via trusted platforms.

However, a fundamental challenge persists. Most of these personalised ads residing within the internet’s walled gardens (closed ecosystems created by tech giants) fail to engage with the vast audience on the open internet. Marketing campaigns on closed ecosystems cannot reach their true potential for another reason. Those platforms not only curb audience reach but also restrict access to performance data, making it difficult for advertisers to refine their strategies.

Mumbai-based madtech (martech+adtech) startup Mobavenue is helping digital-first brands tackle this challenge. While its hyper-personalised solutions balance user privacy and marketing effectiveness, its unified programmatic media platform offers marketers greater control over operations, deeper insights into customer behaviour and more precise targeting. By 2024, the startup emerged as a leading player in the madtech space, leveraging AI and first-party data to drive results.

In an , Mobavenue CEO & MD, Ishank Joshi discussed the venture’s growth, its push into new technological frontiers and its roadmap for expansion and innovation. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview.

Inc42: How did Mobavenue evolve from a digital marketing agency into a full-stack madtech platform? What caused the pivot?

Ishank Joshi: Mobavenue is not new to structural changes. We have always made strategic pivots, solved clients’ problems and focussed on bootstrapping for greater control.

Our journey began in late 2017 as a boutique and bespoke digital agency. Google and Meta were used to start with, besides programmatic media, and ASO (app store optimisation) solutions. That agency was a great place to start, but it soon became apparent that the model could not be scaled to address all challenges.

So, we pivoted in 2018 to become a programmatic media specialist (those who automate bidding and media buying). Using global tools and platforms, we helped our clientele set up their strategies while we built a unified programmatic media platform to provide targeted solutions for Indian and international brands.

By late 2019, we had launched our platform, and surprisingly, Covid-19 clinched things for us. As mobile usage went through the roof, marketers seeking engagement beyond Google and Meta turned to our platform, validated our model and provided valuable feedback. It was a turning point, allowing us to refine and scale rapidly.

Of course, a full-stack madtech platform is much bigger in scope. It combines martech and ad tech so that advertisers can leverage the hyper-personalised traits of marketing and the massive scale of advertising to reach their clients. Powered by this overarching approach, Mobavenue has emerged as a resilient and innovative startup in the dynamic digital landscape.

Inc42: What has set Mobavenue apart in the global madtech market?

Ishank Joshi: At Mobavenue, our innovations are driven by consumer requirements and the rapid evolution of digital advertising and AI-ML technology. We continuously develop our core technology stack to handle challenges and opportunities in the global madtech landscape.

But what sets us apart is our commitment to developing an all-encompassing, full-stack software suite. Instead of relying on bits and pieces of tech tools scattered everywhere or contacting multiple vendors for different services, our integrated products streamline advertising and marketing across the open internet. The result? Greater efficiency, simplified processes and enhanced earnings for our clients.

As a team, our priority is sustainable innovation, but we don’t reinvent the wheel. We invest in scalable technologies and businesses, ensuring long-term growth for Mobavenue and its clientele.

Inc42: How do you drive growth and engagement for brands?

Ishank Joshi: Mobavenue is here to help digital businesses drive engagement and corner growth. We address three critical issues – driving measurable awareness, acquiring high-value end-clients and maximising revenue from the existing customer pool. Our flagship products – PrsmX, SurgeX and ReSurgeX – are purpose-built solutions powered by a core AI engine and a real-time bidding (RTB) platform. They all work in sync to deliver measurable outcomes for our clients.

While PrsmX enhances brand visibility and customer engagement, helping businesses fine-tune their branding strategies, SurgeX helps them acquire high-value consumers via our AI-ML-powered demand-side platform. ReSurgeX uses contextual and product-based ads to re-engage with past visitors and relapsed consumers. This boosts incremental revenue and delivers more personalised engagements.

With our core AI engine and platform-based approach, we help brands throughout their customer journey, increase engagement and deliver growth-driven outcomes.

Inc42: Tell us more about your core AI. How does it help navigate operational complexities?

Ishank Joshi: Fifteen months ago, we started building a centralised AI-ML workbench atop our core platform, strengthening our systems with cutting-edge capabilities. Since then, this foundation has been used to develop and deploy AI agents and automated workflows, enhancing both internal operations and customer-facing processes. These AI agents run 24×7, optimising campaigns, improving outcomes and streamlining workflows.

As part of our 2030 roadmap, we want to develop fully autonomous tools and AI agent-led systems. These innovations will empower existing and new clients with solutions that think, manage, create and optimise daily operations with minimal intervention. This AI infrastructure will seamlessly integrate our core technology platforms alongside new ones for optimised operations, and we are building it as a modular and robust stack fit for these tasks. AI-driven automation will allow businesses to achieve sustainable growth and help us stay ahead of the curve.

Inc42: How do you leverage first-party data in a privacy-conscious digital ecosystem?

Ishank Joshi: In a digital landscape where privacy takes centre stage whenever we consider tech advancements, brands are redefining their CRM and martech ecosystems by harnessing the power of first-party data [information collected directly from clients]. At Mobavenue, we enable businesses to achieve these goals by leveraging data collaboration technologies aligned with Indian and global privacy standards to enhance customer engagement.

Currently in beta, our data collaboration and audience exchange technology has been designed for brands to facilitate seamless and secure data sharing among trusted partners without exposing personally identifiable information. Combining these first-party insights with external analytics and data partners in a controlled environment unlocks rich customer intelligence, successfully fuelling hyper-personalised and highly targeted marketing campaigns across platforms.

Built on privacy-first principles, our solutions ensure that marketing, analytics and data teams operate in perfect sync while maintaining complete control over sensitive information. We maximise business value with advanced encryption and privacy-preserving methodologies without compromising user trust or regulatory compliance.

Inc42: How would Mobavenue grow in the next three to five years?

Ishank Joshi: We will strive to become a strong global leader in madtech and monetisation technologies, driven by our core AI-ML workbench. In essence, we want to empower enterprises, businesses and media publishers with purpose-built, scalable solutions that spur innovation, growth and efficiency.

Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision – Building from India for India and the world – we are committed to developing cutting-edge, made-in-India technologies and software to cater to global markets. We will be part of the fast-growing digital advertising ecosystem, projected to surpass $1 Tn globally by 2028, and contribute to India’s rise as a global powerhouse of technological innovation.

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