Clout Kitchen, a consumer AI startup with operations in Los Angeles and Manila, announced its $4.45-million seed funding round.
The round was co-led by a16z SPEEDRUN, an accelerator for startups at the intersection of tech and games, and venture capital firm Peak XV’s Surge — with participation from Taiwan’s AppWorks, Antler, Hustle Fund, Founders Launchpad, Orvel Ventures, and founders & creators like Gabby Dizon of YGG, Kun Gao of Crunchyroll, Voyboy, Jankos and Perkz.
Established in 2024, Clout Kitchen builds creator-powered interactive experiences in gaming and pop culture that unlock new ways for top creators to engage and expand their fan base.
Clout Kitchen is led by serial gaming and creator economy builders. CEO Justin Gorriceta-Banusing founded and scaled AcadArena, Southeast Asia and Latin America’s leading campus gaming platform, to series A and an exit while in college. In high school, they built CONQuest Festival — the largest creator event in SEA with 80K+ attendees. CBO Marcel Feldkamp was a pioneering League of Legends pro/creator, playing in the 2013 World Championship. After retiring, he founded the gaming talent agency Prime, which later joined United Talent Agency via Press X.
Clout Kitchen’s first product is Backseat AI, an in-game “buddy” for League of Legends co-built with Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp — one of the world’s biggest gaming content creators with over 20 million followers. Backseat AI is Riot-compliant and guides players on how to best play the game in real-time — from what characters to pick to which items to buy, all by an AI voice twin of their favorite creator. Since launching early access testing in June, the product has hit over 45,000 waitlist signups.
“Our thesis at Clout Kitchen is to build things that grow the pie and add value for fans, creators, and game developers alike,” said Mr. Banusing. “We grew up in this space, so it’s our way of giving back.”
Pricing starts at US$4.99 monthly for each creator “buddy,” who earns from every subscription. Backseat AI’s buddies roster continues to expand with streamer & cosplayer Emiru and pro player Jankos — with more top creators lined up in the coming months.
“As a creator myself, I know how difficult it is to keep your community and business growing,” said Mr. Feldkamp. “It’s easy when you’re starting and have all the time in the world — but it gets harder to keep giving the same love to everyone as you scale. We want to solve that problem.”
With this financing round, Clout Kitchen looks to expand Backseat by scaling its team, establishing its US office, and building out its shared internal tech stack for future creator-powered game companion apps and experiences.
