Quest Portal raises $7.6M and launches subscription for tabletop role-playing games

19.10.2023 - 13:57 / venturebeat.com

Quest Portal, a startup dedicated to making tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) more accessible online, raised $7.6 million in funding.

The influx of capital will enable Reykjavík, Iceland-based Quest Portal to further develop its platform, which aims to democratize the TTRPG space and make it more inclusive. The startup has already gained significant traction during its beta phase, with 10,000 users and 140,000 game sessions played. That’s pretty good, considering the company opened for early access late last year.

Lakestar, Moonfire, and a group of seasoned gaming industry veterans and Dungeon Masters led the round.

“We’ve been completely blown away with the reception so far,” said Gunnar Holmsteinn, CEO of Quest Portal. “We’ve found a great way to play tabletop role-playing games with your friends.”

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“[Like with QuizUp], games should be social,” Holmsteinn said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Figuring out how to just get more people to enjoy tabletop role-playing games is the mission we’re on right now. I’ve been on this path for maybe the past 15 years, but this time it’s going to be the best one for sure.”

He noted there are a lot of peer-reviewed studies that have told us that these games are making people more creative, making them more empathetic, and more collaborative.

“However, they’re just insanely tricky to get into,” Holmsteinn said. “To be a dungeon master, you have to read a ton of books. What we want to do is to make it a lot easier to become a dungeon master or Game Master by figuring out the path for people to jump into a game without maybe knowing all of the rules.”

He said that Quest Portal is what you would get if Slack and The Lord of the Rings had a baby.

“It’s this communication platform, with all these like nerdy little tools. You have your ties, your character sheets, your notes and kind of a library of all the beautiful source books,” he said. “We’re going to weave those together in a really nice, accessible way.”

Traditional tabletop role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, have long been enjoyed in face-to-face settings, fostering collaboration and creativity among players. However, these games often have high barriers to entry, requiring Game Masters (GMs) to navigate extensive rules and lore. While online platforms have facilitated the transition to virtual gameplay, they remain complex and unintuitive, Holmsteinn said.

Holmsteinn previously ran Tea Time Games, maker of QuizUp.

Quest Portal aims to overcome these challenges by leveraging its tech