Digital Catapult has announced a £400,000 investment in deep tech startup Immersely to scale its solution and expand across the UK’s creative industries. Immersely’s tool could redefine the creative economy and fuel a steady pipeline of compelling new content, particularly in the design and development of video games.  

Immersely’s technology uses deep machine learning and anonymised biometric data such as heart rate, stress levels, and engagement patterns, to determine how video game players emotionally respond to the content they experience. By applying emotional intelligence, the system identifies which elements enhance player enjoyment and which diminish engagement, providing valuable insights for future game design and development. This helps game developers and studios to predict how a game will perform before release and deliver real-time, adaptive content as players interact with the game.   

Founded in 2022, Immersely has tested its solution with 3,000 players, achieving 90% accuracy in sentiment analysis and detection. By leveraging proprietary feed-forward neural networks, Immersely processes biometric inputs from smart watches and sensors to track players’ emotional states and in-game reactions to create hyper-personalised gaming experiences tailored to each player. With Digital Catapult’s investment, Immersely will expand its research and development efforts to build the world’s first fully interactive gameplay interface.  

The startup has demonstrated success across genres including horror, where Immersely’s technology can deliver perfectly calibrated scares that adapt to each player's comfort level and fear response, maintaining optimal fear levels without overwhelming players. In health and wellness, it has created therapeutic gaming environments that promote stress reduction and relaxation, demonstrating applications for the UK’s gaming industry.

 The UK’s gaming industry is currently valued at £31billion, employs almost 65,000 people, and is expected to be worth £37 billion by 2027, necessitating new innovations that can be practically applied to the sector to ensure long-term commercial success and stable growth. Immersely’s solution will be an invaluable addition to studios looking for novel ways to increase customer satisfaction and continue to catalyse the UK’s creative output.

The investment takes the form of a convertible loan note (CLN) and is made available by Innovate UK to allow Catapults to invest directly in the businesses they are supporting.

Goodness Akazulu, Co-Founder and CEO of Immersely AI, said: “Digital Catapult has been an invaluable partner to Immersely, taking the time to understand where we want to be as a business and how we can get there. Exposure to like-minded founders on the Black Founders Programme, and access to mentors, technologists and investment support, has been helpful as we scale and look to develop our solution. We’re keen to collaborate with game studios across the country, and this investment will undoubtedly help us to redefine gaming and interactive media as we know it.” 

Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult, said: “The convergence of AI and gaming is an unrivalled opportunity for the UK to build on its position as one of the global leaders in games design and development. Through Digital Catapult’s investment programme, we will work with Immersely beyond the fund itself to support and enable their business to grow and gain further traction in the market.” 

Immersely is an alumnus of Digital Catapult’s Black Founders Programme, helping underrepresented founders become investment ready. Sony Music UK is a collaboration partner for this programme and plays an active role in supporting business growth and facilitating connections where possible.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.