Trivia game app Panya bags $730k from 500 Startups, Antler, others

Panya Studios, a live trivia game show app, has closed a US$730,000 seed round from 500 TukTuks, 500 Startups Vietnam, BigBets, Antler, Investigate, and several angel investors in the region.

The Bangkok-based company will use the money to fund several plans, which include doubling down on tech and building a platform that content creators can use to make their own interactive game shows. This means providing software development kits and white-label solutions that will give its clients “full access and ownership” of their own livestreams.

Panya launched its app in March, garnering more than a million downloads in two months. Now it has 2 million users and claims to have a 40 percent user retention rate.

Panya works like other live trivia games: players are asked to answer a series of questions in hopes of winning cash.

Charting Panya’s initial growth in the trivia category in the Thai Android app store

Geir Windsvoll, the startup’s CEO and co-founder, is excited about the mixed-media format. “Outside of the trivia template, there are still many possibilities to do thousands of variations.”

This year, Panya is taking its business to the region and partnering up with established content producers. It plans to launch in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.