We’re raising a seed round
We think brands can reach younger people better inside games they already play than through ads they skip. Yooca: Your Life is how we’re testing that: a live social game where players visit real brands’ shops and win coupons they can use in real life.
The problem we’re working on
Younger audiences are hard to reach with ads. A lot of them block or ignore ads, but they spend plenty of time in games and they do respond to offers they’ve chosen.
use ad blockers, 58% dislike interruptive ads, and 82% show banner blindness.
Bulbshare; NCSolutions; Kantar / Lineupof Gen Z gamers socialise inside games.
Newzooof Malaysian online shoppers say coupons are one of the main reasons they buy.
GWI Malaysia, 2025Some brands already build things inside games, but these are usually one-off projects, and it’s hard to link them to sales. That’s the part we’re trying to fix.
How it works
A game people come back to
A live social game where players build a life in the city. If the game isn’t fun, nothing else here works, so this gets most of our effort.
Brands as places in the game
Brands show up as shops to visit, AI assistants to chat with and mini-games to play, rather than as banners.
Coupons players can use
Players win coupons they can use at real outlets. When one is used, the brand can see where in the game it came from.
Why the coupon matters. A player wins a brand’s coupon in the game and uses it at the outlet. That gives the brand a way to see which in-game activity led to a purchase, which is hard to get from most ad channels. The loop in detail
Where things stand
Yooca: Your Life launched in June 2026 and is now on PC and Mac. It has players, brand partners, and coupons that can be used at partner outlets.
MDEC’s Businesses in Metaverse (BiM) programme funded the brand content, so most of it was built before launch.
A live game
Launched on 24 June 2026, now on PC and Mac.
200+ brand partners onboarded
With 156 brand interiors built.
A repeatable build process
203 brand experiences built in 2.5 months.
Coupons that work offline
Redeemable at partner outlets.
Direct brand sales
We sell to brands ourselves, and coupon tracking is already running.
Roadmap
This is the plan as it stands today. Each step depends on the one before it going well, and the later steps will change as we learn more.
-
NowLive
Social life sim, live on PC and Mac
Live through our own launcher since 24 June 2026, with the core game, the Yooca Pet, player homes, 200+ brand partners and tracking for players and coupons.
-
Late 2026Scale
Storefronts and retention
Steam, Epic Games Store and STOVE, after we’ve given players more reasons to come back: daily activities, timed events, seasonal content and regular brand rewards.
-
Q1 2027Mobile
iOS and Android
Most players in the region are on mobile, so this is where we expect the biggest jump in players, and in what the game is worth to brands.
-
2027Expand
Creator economy and the region
Player-made spaces and items, creator tools, and a move into Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The brand system was built to be reused, so a new market shouldn’t need big changes to the game.
-
2027 to 2028Platform
Open engagement platform
An API for brand experiences and an SDK for other publishers and developers, so brands could run trackable campaigns in other games without a custom build.
How this compares
A rough comparison with the other places brands spend this kind of budget.
| What a brand needs | Youniverse | Social and video ads | Other game platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proof a purchase happened | Coupon redemptions | Mostly clicks and views | Mostly awareness |
| The brand owns its data | Yes | Platform owns it | Platform owns it |
| Always-on brand presence | A place in the world | Depends on the feed | Limited campaigns |
| Native to where players are | Inside the game | Interrupts what people are doing | Inside the game |
Where we think we have a head start
Content already built
156 brand interiors and 203 brand experiences in 2.5 months. Someone else could sign a single brand quickly, but building a library like this, plus the brand tools and the coupon system, takes time.
Our MDEC relationship
Working with MDEC has been a good way to meet brands, and that kind of relationship takes years to build.
Data that builds up
Every campaign tells us more about which activities lead to coupons being used. We expect that to matter when brands decide whether to renew.
Players and brands help each other
More players make the game more useful to brands, and more brands mean better rewards for players.
Market size
We’re starting in Malaysia, where we already have brand relationships and MDEC’s support, and plan to move into the rest of Southeast Asia from there.
Southeast Asian digital brand marketing spend across a six-country rollout.
In-app and gaming-native brand engagement across Southeast Asia.
Five-year serviceable target across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Market sizing derived from third-party research including Niko Partners, Southeast Asia Games Market Report 2025. SEA-6 covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The team
Charles Tang founded InstanteStore in 2001, an e-commerce platform used by businesses in 85+ countries with over US$1.8B in sales. Goh Sui Sim runs operations and ran our MDEC programme. Ryan Lim leads development on the game. Robin Ng, former COO of Gravity Game Hub and Senior GM at SEGA Singapore, advises us on publishing.
Meet the team
Charles Tang
Founder & CEO
Goh Sui Sim
Founder & COO
Ryan Lim
Lead DeveloperTalk to us about the round
We’re happy to show you the game and go through the numbers. You can also email [email protected].