ValkaAI Raises €12M to Build the Next Generation of Live AI Avatars

ValkaAI Raises €12M to Build the Next Generation of Live AI Avatars

ValkaAI, part of Realms Group, today announced €12M in pre-seed funding, which ranks among the most significant pre-seed rounds in EEU.

Led by Rockaway Ventures with participation from J&T Ventures, Tensor Ventures, BD Partners, Fond Naše Česko, and Petr Zámečník, this milestone will accelerate ValkaAI's path to developing scalable real-time, interactive AI that stands to replace scripted AI with lifelike avatars.

The complexity of responsive avatars

Most AI today is based on speech-or speech-like output. Attempts to create video with generative AI have faced a host of technical issues including flickering, deformation, or visual breakdown.

Building lifelike AI avatars that can interact with the real world-with the natural spontaneity of a human-is layered and incredibly difficult. It requires rethinking how AI understands motion, physicality, and presence at a fundamental level. Consider that what seems "simple", a hand gesture or a hand interacting with an object, is one of the hardest unsolved problems in embodied AI. Now imagine doing that at a scale where real-life interactions happen in an instant.

This has been the challenge facing Gen AI researchers, none of whom have developed a scalable solution to date.

ValkaAI's approach to embodied AI

The team at ValkaAI are taking a different approach - a three-tier approach.

1. Video generation - They're designing and optimizing models using Generative Adversarial Networks and Diffusion models to ensure consistency, realism, and style for digital avatars.

2. Audio generation - They're developing speech synthesis and voice cloning capable of high-fidelity, natural-sounding output with a broad emotional range and real-time inference speed.

3. Event generation - They're building and refining models for in-game simulations across esports titles and traditional sports.

Together, these three layers form the foundation for virtual, life-like beings that can interact and respond in real time.

As a part of Realms Group, ValkaAI's work accelerates our mission to connect imagination with execution. We're proud to shape the next generation of entertainment with scalable, interactive, AI-powered experiences.