Jason Calacanis-backed Stori rebrands as Nucanon after $500,000 raise

Gaming content generation platform Stori has rebranded as Nucanon having raised $500,000 in what the startup says is another pre-Seed raise.

The latest round was led by Skalata with support Outlier Ventures, Paperclip Partners, and Sydney FC CEO Mark Aubrey, as well as existing investor Antler.

Launched in 2022 by Nilushanan Kulasingham, who built his first website aged 8 and the flash games at 14, Nucanon was part of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, and made the final of the SXSW Sydney pitch competition last year.

Antler and high profile US investor Jason Calacanis backed the startup in 2023 in its first pre-Seed round

Nucanon uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to support narrative teams in generating content, and easily navigate, visualise, and manage storylines in an intuitive node-based interface. 

Kulasingham said the platform true value lies in its ability to engage fans, alongside extending a game’s lifespan for its creators.

“We built Nucanon to accommodate fan engagement, enabling them to evolve lore themselves, which there’s a massive appetite for. Fan participation increases engagement, informs future updates and sequels, and creates network effects,” he said. 

The platform already has 15,000 demo users, a 3,500-strong waitlist, and a partnership with Gamurs, which gives Nucanon access to their monthly active user base of 66 million gamers. 

While Netflix’s The Witcher and HBO’s The Last Of Us are examples of hugely successful game adaptations, Kulasingham said Nucanon enables small, indie, and technical-only studios without 30-strong writing teams to level up. 

“The industry is maturing and there are thousands of game types vying for attention. Smaller studios will struggle to differentiate in terms of mechanics or technical abilities, but they can differentiate with the kind of stories that make lifelong emotional impacts on players,” he said.

“The magic of gaming narratives often comes from the brilliant (human) creators behind them. Nucanon allows teams to focus on the creativity that makes far-away worlds feel like familiar places.” 

Skalata Investment Director Tom Smalley said it’s rare to meet a founder who’s been immersed in their industry as early as childhood.

“Nilu knows the territory inside out, from multiple perspectives as a consumer, developer, and writer,” he said.

“Nucanon fits our mandate in every way – rare insight, technical prowess, and intimate knowledge of a widespread problem.”