ManaMind raises £1.1m seed to automate game QA with autonomous agents
This article covers ManaMind, an autonomous game testing AI startup, which has raised £1.1m in a seed funding round to commercialise agents that play through games and spot bugs automatically. The development aims to support game studios and testers by scaling automated regression testing to shorten test cycles and reduce quality assurance costs across development and live-service updates.
ManaMind, an autonomous game testing AI startup, has raised £1.1 million in a seed funding round to commercialise agents that play through games and spot bugs automatically — a fix for one of the most time‑consuming and expensive parts of game development.
Why it matters
Quality assurance typically accounts for 10 to 15% of a game's total budget, and costs rise as titles grow in scope and complexity. Studios shipping hundreds or thousands of hours of content across platforms face shrinking release windows and the ongoing demands of live‑service updates. Faster, more reliable regression testing can cut launch risk and operational cost; high‑profile buggy releases have shown the financial downside when QA fails.
ManaMind's seed raise is notable because it targets that specific bottleneck with automation rather than incremental tooling. If the firm can deliver its claimed improvements at scale, studios could shorten test cycles and redirect human testers toward creative work.
Inside the product
ManaMind builds autonomous agents that play games end to end, running continuous testing alongside development. The company says its system can complete full regression cycles in six hours and detect 86% of critical bugs before shipping. Results are presented as actionable reports so developers spend time fixing issues rather than documenting them.
Early deployments have reportedly found bugs that human testers missed. ManaMind also cites design partnerships with Included Games and Crazy Labs; Included Games is an independent developer known for narrative and design‑led projects, while Crazy Labs is a major mobile publisher and studio, which gives ManaMind exposure to both mid‑tier and high‑volume mobile pipelines.
The startup plans to use the funding to expand its technical team, accelerate proprietary visual model development tailored to virtual environments, and scale into key geographies.
Who are the investors?
The seed round was led by SVV (Sure Valley Ventures) and included participation from EWOR, Ascension, Syndicate Room and Heartfelt. The £1.1 million will support hiring, model development and geographic expansion as ManaMind moves from design partnerships to broader commercial adoption.
In the announcement, Brian Kinane, Partner at SVV, said:
ManaMind is solving a critical pain point in game development at the intersection of AI-in-gaming and Intelligent Automation - two rapidly growing sectors. Emil and Sabtain combine deep technical expertise with firsthand understanding of the QA challenge. Their autonomous agents complete in six hours what takes manual QA teams days - and they catch bugs that human testers miss. That's the kind of measurable improvement we back.
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Founder perspective
ManaMind was founded by Emil Kostadinov and Sabtain Ahmad. Kostadinov holds an Oxford MBA, is an EWOR Fellow and previously worked as a game tester; Ahmad has a PhD in machine learning. The pair position gaming as a launchpad for a broader vision: apply autonomous testing to other software domains and, ultimately, robotics.
In the announcement, Emil Kostadinov, Co-founder & CEO at ManaMind, said:
The future of game development should be about human creativity, not repetitive testing. We're automating the manual, time-consuming parts so studios can focus on building amazing worlds. We've developed our own proprietary visual model specifically for virtual environments because gaming demands that level of precision. Gaming is our launchpad, but our vision is to build the autonomous testing layer for all software and, ultimately, robotics.
The bigger picture
The global games market is worth roughly $250 billion, and the technical pressures on QA are increasing as titles become longer and updates more frequent. Automated testing tools that materially reduce regression time and catch more pre‑ship defects could become a standard part of development pipelines, especially for live‑service and cross‑platform projects.
The deal also fits a broader pattern of investor interest in AI-driven automation tools. For the UK and European ecosystem, companies that can prove measurable efficiency gains for large creative industries — and then translate those gains into adjacent software markets — tend to attract follow‑on funding and partnerships. ManaMind’s progress will be one to watch for studios and investors looking to reduce the cost and risk of shipping complex interactive experiences.
They've invested in ManaMind
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| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sure Valley Ventures | 13 investments investments | 2 contacts contacts | |||
 EWOR | 8 investments investments | 6 contacts contacts | |||
 Ascension Ventures (Ascension) | 22 investments investments | 6 contacts contacts | |||
 Syndicate Room | 10 investments investments | more info | |||
 Heartfelt | 3 investments investments | more info |
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