Jest, a messaging games marketplace platform, has emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors. The company also introduced the Jest Games Fund, which offers up to $1 million per title to accelerate development of instant, high-retention games built natively for messaging.
Founded in 2025, Jest is positioning messaging as a frictionless distribution channel and a viable alternative to traditional mobile app stores. By leveraging the rapid global adoption of Rich Communication Services, the platform enables developers to distribute and operate games directly within messaging threads. Early studio partners include Pocket Gems, Global Worldwide, HayHay, Nowwa, HG Point, and Dominion Games.
The company said it will use the seed funding to scale its platform and onboard its first wave of studios, capitalizing on three major industry shifts. Conversational interfaces have become mainstream, with users increasingly interacting with technology through chat-based experiences. At the same time, demand for instant experiences has grown as smartphones, 5G networks, and web technologies reduce the need for traditional app installs. The rise of RCS has further transformed messaging into a rich, interactive surface that supports branding, verified identities, images, buttons, and structured content inside conversations.
Apple’s adoption of RCS in iOS 18 in late 2024 marked a significant inflection point, creating a universal standard capable of supporting app-like experiences across Android and iOS. As RCS adoption surpasses 3.8 billion monthly active users, messaging has become a scalable platform for instant, app-less gaming experiences. Jest reports that partner titles have delivered three to four times higher retention and 35% to 60% lower user acquisition costs than their mobile app counterparts across more than 1 million games played during beta.
The Jest Games Fund is designed to support both independent and established studios in building, launching, and scaling messaging game titles, including adaptations of existing intellectual property. The fund has begun deploying $1 million for flagship titles, $200,000 for promising titles, and $40,000 for exploratory projects. Developers on the platform keep 90% of revenue, while Jest subsidizes 100% of messaging costs. The company’s SDK converts messaging functionality into a simple API call, managing infrastructure, carrier integrations, compliance, and liability.
Jest said its goal is to establish messaging as the next major distribution surface for gaming, providing developers direct access to global audiences beyond the traditional app store model.
KEY QUOTES
“As millions of mobile apps and games compete for new users amid a decline in app store downloads and soaring acquisition costs, it’s increasingly clear that the app store business model is outdated. Messaging is the first open, global distribution channel to offer developers a fundamentally new distribution and engagement model. Messaging fundamentally reshapes the retention curve by meeting players where they already are – in their text threads.”
Deyan Vitanov, CEO and Co-Founder of Jest
“Every major gaming platform has been defined by a new distribution surface. Jest is opening a new one inside messaging, giving developers direct access to global audiences beyond the app store model.”
Dror Berman, Founder and Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors
