How a team of game devs trying to build the next big thing raised a $4.5 million seed round from A16Z and Laton Ventures

• Antihero Studios is a team of game developers based in Barcelona.
• They raised $4.5 million in seed funding to make their game, "Misfitz."
• Antihero's CEO, Brice Laville Saint-Martin, told Business Insider how the venture got off the ground.

At 30, Brice Laville Saint-Martin quit his job at a big gaming studio to try to build something of his own.

Now, at 32, he's secured the millions he needs to make his dream come true.

Saint-Martin, the CEO of Antihero Studios, told Business Insider that his startup raised more than $4.5 million in a seed funding round co-led by A16z Speedrun and Turkey-based Laton Ventures.

The studio is developing "Misfitz," a social-driven shooter game.

The art of the game

Saint-Martin got his start in the gaming industry as a 3D artist and cut his teeth at Helsinki-based Supercell as an art director. Players of "Clash Royale," a decade-old strategy mobile game, may recognize his work.

"I went in as an artist, and I stayed there for almost seven years. And through the years, I was less of an artist every year," Saint-Martin said of his time at Supercell.

Not being limited to the creative side of things helped him explore other aspects of game-making, from art direction to working with external partners.

In 2024, Saint-Martin left his role at Supercell and, with his two co-founders, established Antihero Studios. The Barcelona-based team now has 10 people, including artists and front-end and back-end engineers. The staff includes a game designer from Brawl Stars and a technical director from Candy Crush.

The game Saint-Martin's team is developing is titled "MISFITZ," and he tells Business Insider it's not just your regular Battle Royale. Unlike games like the 2017 "PUBG: Battlegrounds," where players duke it out to the death individually or in teams, people can decide in-game to collaborate or betray their alliances.

Antihero's data shows more than 70,000 players joined the studio's pre-alpha playtest for the game. During the 10-day playtest held last month, top players played the game for 10 hours a day, while average players logged around 50 minutes daily.

The big funding run

Now, the seed round will give Antihero Studios the funds it needs to develop and further test the game before it gives Series A funding a go.

"All the capital from Series A will go to growing the company and the operation," Saint-Martin said, adding that the studio will only make significant headcount increases during its Series A phase.

"They are bringing full experiences to life that allow players to connect with each other and with the content in ways that transcend the game itself," said Joshua Lu from A16z Speedrun said of Saint-Martin and his team.

"Antihero Studios is not just building games, but answering a generational need to connect through play," said Görkem Turk, the founding partner of Laton Ventures, which is co-leading the funding round. "We're excited to back this all-star team as they build a long-lasting company brand and IP in a genre with a deeply engaged, passionate player base."

'It's not 2016 anymore'

For people who want to take a crack at the gaming industry themselves, Saint-Martin has some tough love: Humble yourself and be strategic, because the competition is cutthroat.

"I think as a developer, there's this culture of, 'We're just going to focus on the game, and it's going to stick.' That's not true anymore," Saint-Martin said. "It's not 2016 anymore. The competition is incredible."

Saint-Martin said he was intentional in his funding pitches, making it clear that he and his team know good marketing, including content creation and community engagement, is what makes or breaks the game.

"Many teams will just do the fundraising and kind of go dark until the game is released, and hope for the best," Saint-Martin said. "The market isn't so forgiving. It was important to us to play with the community from day one, and ask them: 'What do you think?'"

He added that to shore up its marketing, Antihero developed a creator program early on so influencers and playtesters could help build hype for the game way before it hits the market.

"If you are not extremely strategic on everything, and it can be the big picture or every little step, I think you're going to have a very, very hard time," Saint-Martin said.

Despite the grind, Saint-Martin has one big tip for founders in gaming: Try to see beauty in the everyday, even when you're trying to get through long work days or feeling the weight of your team's livelihoods on your shoulders.

"Sometimes I feel like we're just going through a day, or just going through things, and not realizing that, 'Hey, this is my whole dream," Saint-Martin said. "I built this dream myself, I'm living it. And that's easy to forget."