Google puts $1M into 3D design app Rooms after more than one million ‘rooms' created

Company Overview - Rooms is a 3D design app launched in beta in 2023 by former Google employees, allowing users to create interactive 3D rooms and mini-games using a library of over 10,000 items and the Lua programming language [1] - The company was founded by ex-Googlers Jason Toff, Bruno Oliveira, and Nick Kruge, who have backgrounds in AR/VR, games, and YouTube [2] - Rooms has surpassed 1 million rooms built on its platform and offers over 10,000 digital items for designing, up from 7,500 in April 2024 [6] - The app is available on the web and iOS but has not yet introduced monetization [8] Funding and Partnerships - Google invested $1 million in Rooms as part of a partnership deal, providing early access to Google's Gemini AI [1] - The funding, closed in December, was structured as a SAFE, giving Google the option to invest in Rooms' Series A round [7] - Previously, Rooms raised$10 million in seed funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Adobe's Scott Belsky, and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger [7] Product Features and Updates - Rooms version 3.0, released on November 26, 2024, introduced a new Actions editor enabling users to animate rooms without coding [4] - The app plans to leverage Gemini AI for text-to-speech capabilities, allowing creators to add narration and character dialogue, enhancing storytelling [4] - Creators can choose from various tones for character dialogue, such as angry, bored, calm, confident, enthusiastic, happy, and excited [5] User Trends and Engagement - Initially, creators built simple spaces and mini-games, but recent trends show users creating larger spaces and using the app for storytelling [3] - An example is user eodqueen, who transitioned from standard rooms to larger spaces with animation and interactivity [3] - Rooms had grown to 250,000 registered users last year, though current user numbers and engagement times are not disclosed [6]