The new funding will accelerate Born‘s product roadmap and hiring of the world’s best consumer AI talent. This will include the opening of a US office in New York, scaling and releasing new characters for Born’s flagship social AI character app Pengu, and the launch of its new AI social product focused on characters that will be like real friends, which is currently seeing strong traction in stealth.
Accel, which led Born’s seed round last year, participated in the new Series A round alongside Laton Ventures and Tencent. Laton Ventures also contributed to the previous $5M investment. With this new funding, Born has now raised a total of $25M.
Born’s previous investors include Supercell Co-Founder and CEO Ilkka Paananen, King Co-Founder Riccardo Zacconi, Former Adobe CSO and CPO, A24 Film Studios Partner Scott Belsky, and the Chainsmokers’ Alexander Pall.
Despite being more technologically connected than ever before, loneliness is surging – prompting the US to declare it an epidemic. In 2025, companionship became the top use case for generative AI, with 36% users describing AI as a “good friend” and 94% seeking help with personal goals.
Just as social networks structured around photo-sharing and messaging have dominated how we interact over the last two decades, Born is building a new generation of digital life centered on virtual characters designed for connection, emotion, and play.
Since launching in 2022, Born has released five consumer social apps that all reached #1 globally on the App Store. Its flagship AI character, Pengu – which users can raise, play mini-games with, and “co-parent” with friends and family – has reached more than 15 million users globally, and became the biggest AI character app with its own IP in the US.
With today’s funding, Born will continue its track record of building the right products in consumer social AI with further investment in its technology.
This will include scaling Pengu by introducing new characters with different use cases; the enhancement of Born’s character engine that gives each AI friend the ability to form a consistent personality, remember interactions, and grow alongside the user; a new digital humans product specifically for Gen Alpha; and a mobile-first platform layer for emotionally rich, real-time AI experiences.
Additionally, Born will open a New York office later in 2025 for its US-based team focused on AI research and marketing functions, and led by Head of Finance Enrico Dal Re, to deepen its presence in a core market for the business.
“At Born, we believe the future of digital life will be shaped by AI friends that people truly connect with. This funding is a major step forward in bringing that vision to life. We’re doubling down on building AI characters that are not only technically advanced but also culturally relevant and deeply human in how they interact, grow, and resonate with users. Consumer social AI will be the next breakout category, and we intend to lead it.”
Fabien Kamberi, CEO and Co-Founder of Born
By setting out to build a new generation of digital life, with emotionally intelligent AI characters, the Born team has the potential to create a new consumer social category. We’ve been really impressed by the team’s ability to develop chart-topping apps and their inspiring product vision, and we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with them as they scale globally.
Luca Bocchio, Partner at Accel
