Please welcome Lil Snack, the snackable games company
Meet Lil Snack, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: Los Angeles, CA
Founders: Eric Berman and Travis Chen
The problem: The global video game market is massive, with more than 3 billion gamers worldwide, but much of the gaming industry still relies on old gen development tools, and publishes games at a slow pace relative to the flow of news and culture. Generative AI has created the technical infrastructure to allow for the rapid, low-cost development of light-weight games. (And we know people like straightforward, elegant games — the NYT’s Wordle and Connections products have helped them pass $1B in revenue for the first year ever.) These advancements in AI are just beginning to penetrate the gaming industry and, as the non-gamer-gamer cohort continues to grow, the trend toward daily games is growing as well.
Lil Snack’s solution: Lil Snack is unlocking the ultimate blend of snackable games and entertainment trends by building games at the speed of culture. The company releases a new set of games every day, often linked to a topical theme. To accelerate game development and meet daily demand, Lil Snack is using new AI tools that allow it to make games affordably, and in a matter of minutes. Now, if something happens in the world, customers can play it, too. These puzzle and trivia games, which regularly go viral and entice streamers to play live with millions of followers, aim to offer players entertaining, intertwined experiences, infused with real-time pop-culture headlines, catapulting audience reach and engagement. By design, the average daily time spent in-game is consistently around 10 minutes, providing players with a little break in their day–a little snack–and not an immensely time consuming or distracting experience.
Origin story: Prior to Lil Snack, Eric held a number of senior roles at the world’s largest media companies, including Hulu, the Chernin Group, Crunchyroll, Warner Media and OK Play, where he served as the COO and first began working with Travis. Travis previously served as Chief Game Designer at Scopely, which was acquired for $5 billion. He then led the team building augmented reality experiences at Snap. Together, the two also sold OK Play to Dapper Labs in 2022, where they led consumer-driven initiatives in partnership with the NBA, the NFL, and Disney, among others. Travis and Eric’s high-speed journey to launching Lil Snack started by releasing one-off games before they even conceived of starting a company. Watching the massive resurgence of daily games making waves in the $200 billion mobile games industry, the two started developing their own games and sharing them with family and friends. The games caught on, and Lil Snack was born.
Why we’re betting on it: Lil Snack is pioneering a transformative approach to gaming, merging entertainment and engagement to redefine the mobile play experience. The company’s innovative approach has already garnered widespread attention, attracting a rapidly growing user base of 100% month-over-month since launch. The company is also collaborating with renowned brands while securing distribution deals with some of the world’s largest media platforms, further extending their reach. Lil Snack’s dynamic games blend fresh headlines with new and classic trivia formats to keep players engaged. Eric and Travis are uniquely positioned to drive this segment of gaming forward through their combined experience, networks, and expertise in the industry, promising immersive and unforgettable experiences for players to look forward to on a daily basis. We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with the Lil Snack team as they work to redefine mobile gaming in the digital era.
Our take: Our experience operating and investing in many media and entertainment companies, as well as our continued affection for consumer-obsessed businesses, aligns beautifully with market timing and conditions for the launch of Lil Snack. Ephemeral, daily gaming has become top of mind for many consumers. But beyond the New York Times, which has more than 11 million paying subscribers, few gaming companies have entered the segment. The team’s ability to produce games at lightning speed and give players more topical content and less addictive, distracting options than the noise typically found in other corners of the internet, makes Lil Snack an extremely exciting new platform.
Further reading: “Lil Snack raises $3.1M for snackable games built by devs with AI tools” via VentureBeat
