Matiks raises $10M to expand its math and puzzle gaming platform; AI delivers ‘zero financial payoff’ to most companies, plus, Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs

0:01This is TechCrunch.

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1:13That's Framer.com slash tcstartups. Rules and restrictions may apply. Over the past decade, head-to-head brain games like QuizUp rocketed in popularity, reaching at one point millions of users. After that, battle royale games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds had their moment in the spotlight. Lately, growth of mobile games has slowed down amid a barrage of AI content across platforms. Well now, the India-based gaming company Maddox wants to steer people away from AI-riddled timelines with its math, logic, and brain game puzzle platform. The namesake app has been around for two years, but has seen real traction this year.

2:00The startup said that its daily users have grown from 22 ,000 earlier in the year to over 300 ,000 by September. The app also saw 2.2 million monthly active users in that month, with the company's growth attracting fresh investor interest. The startup said Monday that it has raised$10 million in pre-Series A funding, led by General Catalysts, with participation from Indian entrepreneur Rani Skruvala and existing investors InfoEdge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures. Now, with this round, the company has raised over$13.5 million to date. Maddox was founded by Sintashu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar, and Shushant Timopur, who were college friends.

2:49Bhatia, who has a background in competitive mental math, said that he started working on the idea while he was working at American Express on an anti-money laundering strategy. He said, you know, for the last 10 years, the platforms have made entertainment consumption easy, but much of it is brain slop. We started exploring how we can make math-related games fun and entertaining, like the other content. Since I've had this background in mental math, I knew that a competitive ecosystem exists there. We got to know that the same exists for puzzles and memory. We wanted to make our app as entertaining as physical sports, so we opted for a dual format.

3:31In the app, users can choose from math, puzzle, memory, and logic categories and play different games against bots to practice and then against real players. Users can also play challenges and quests to earn points, maintain streaks, and unlock new games. Until now, Maddox has been focusing on user growth and just started testing a subscription this month, which unlocks game analysis, tips and tricks, practice, and additional features. The startup also allows for in-game purchases to skip certain challenges, maintain a streak, and boost XP points. Bhatia said that while the majority of the game's players are based in India, the startup has seen traction from other markets like the US, South Korea, and Japan.

4:18The startup plans to bring in localization to grow the latter two markets. While Maddox is battling against AI slop, it is not entirely rejecting AI. The company has debuted an experimental game creation platform called Jello, which lets users make their own games and lets others play them. There is a ton of competition in that area, including Google's new platform called Playground. The startup with 41 full-time employees wants to use the funding to scale this platform by expanding into newer markets. Rahul Humayun, a partner at General Catalyst, told TechCrunch in an email that the product's pace of iteration and user engagement have given the firm encouraging signs.

5:05He said, you know, we found the Maddox Vision product and most importantly, the community to be truly in of one. The team's product taste and pace of iteration made it a no brainer. The exceptional product love and power user behavior are clear signs that the team is on to something special. We believe these are strong leading indicators for monetization, with early results looking promising. The depth of engagement across surface areas like duels, social, snack, and now creation only helps.

5:41AI has not benefited the bottom line of any big corporations outside the tech industry. That's according to a note recently published by the chief economist at Apollo Global Management, the private equity giant that used to own TechCrunch. Apollo's Torsten Schlagg focuses on what he calls the S &P 493, the S &P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla, finding that profit margins and revenue per worker appear to be flat, with zero evidence that AI is improving productivity. Sluck said, Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech.

6:34Now, is this simply a matter of non-tech companies lagging behind the tech giants? Maslach sounded skeptical, arguing that it will be tough for corporate America to turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and higher profit margins. He added, AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment. AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins. You've built your retirement nest egg. Now see how the simplified Target 15 distribution ETF, ticker XV, could help you put it to work.

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8:03Colossal Biosciences Ben Lamb and Anderil's Palmer Luckey had an idea to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency response teams. Last week, that idea came out of stealth as Warhound, backed by$200 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, a venture firm backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The round values the company at$1.2 billion. Warhound's dogs, which do not exist yet, will take on tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, such as bomb detection, searches, and other specialized operations.

8:55In its launch announcement, the company said that more than 80 % of the U.S. military's working dogs come from Europe, and less than half of them are fit for service. That means the supply of working dogs is dwindling, and the U.S. increasingly relies on foreign nations for dogs that play an important role in the military and in law enforcement. Warhound aims to change that. The hope is that Colossal can use its technology to engineer dogs with characteristics suited to demanding missions. Lamb told TechCrunch he met Lucky about a year ago at a conference, where Lucky said more should be done for the military's working dogs.

9:38The two kept in touch, and Lamb researched how working dogs are bred. He learned that many of them do not make it through training because of inherited predispositions to problems like poor eyesight or the high possibilities of cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy. Lamb believed dogs could be enhanced for health, longevity, and for things like speed and agility, or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing and whatnot. His team studied top-performing working dog breeds, the Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd, taking cell lines, or living cells grown in a lab, from them and putting them in a biobank.

10:20From there, the team would edit the dog's genes, adding ones that would improve performance, and removing ones that would not to create a new type of dog. Anderil, meanwhile, will provide software and hardware such as protection vests and goggles to assist the dogs and their handlers with situational awareness and coordination. Lamb said to imagine, for example, bulletproof vests with data sensors that send information back to the handlers so they can better understand what is happening. He said, you know, the idea is if we make the dog safer, make it healthier, make it perform better, it's going to perform better in the line of duty.

11:02He added that Anderil's additions will make the dogs safer and healthier beyond their genetics. On top of the dog, not in the dog, he said. He believes the enhancements will also better protect the dog's human handlers. Lucky is a partner in the venture, but owns no equity in it. Colossal owns equity in the business and supports it by licensing its technology. Colossal is currently known for its de-extinction efforts to bring back animals like the dodo and the mammoth. As Lamb previously told TechCrunch, the company has been using AI, buying and building technology to help with gene cloning, and with identifying and copying animal genes.

11:44Lamb said the first batch of dogs is about to be cloned and incubated, with births expected early next year and service ideally beginning within two years. Viagin, another Colossal-owned company, will partner with Warhound to clone the dogs. Lamb said Viagin's technology has a high cloning success rate, and Colossal already uses it in its program to protect endangered species. Warhound does not know yet how much it will charge for the dogs, but it expects to sell to first responders, the Department of Defense, military service groups, and police forces. Asked about government approval, Lamb said the company has briefed many government groups about the business.

12:28Asked about civilian safety, wants genetically enhanced dogs into service, Lamb said each dog will be trained like any military working dog and managed by whoever buys it. The company said it is working under the guidance of the American Humane Society to help certify Warhounds' training program for the new dogs. The hope is also that when these new military dogs retire, they will enter the Society's Military Working Dog Reunification Program, which provides homes for retired military dogs or another program the Society offers to help dogs. When reached for comment, the American Humane Society said, we applaud Warhound and Colossal for inviting the country's first national humane organization, which is grounded in science and ethics, to have a seat at the table.

13:18We look forward to working with them to help ensure the animals in their care are treated humanely. That's all for now. For the latest in startup tech news, go to techcrunch.com.

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