Zupee acquires Australian startup Nucanon to Launch Storytelling Vertical

Social gaming platform Zupee has acquired Australian AI startup Nucanon in an undisclosed amount to launch a new storytelling division. 

Nucanon’s founding team will move to India to head Zupee’s interactive storytelling projects.

The acquisition will allow Zupee to use Nucanon’s narrative engine to create immersive, story-driven experiences. This technology lets users shape the story through their choices, with characters remembering past actions and plots changing in real time.

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After India’s restrictions on real-money gaming, Zupee has shifted its focus to social and casual games. It’s also testing subscription models like Zupee Plus and creating short-form content through Zupee Studio. With this acquisition, Zupee aims to expand its product, tech, and design teams and launch story-based experiences in India and abroad.

Dilsher Singh Malhi, Founder and CEO of Zupee, said “At Zupee, we have always liked to push the boundaries on innovation. We’re very excited about partnering with Nucanon and building the future of how humans will experience stories. For decades, we’ve been trapped between two worlds: the emotional depth of cinema and the agency of games. With Nucanon we want to crack something fundamental — which is not just generating content but understanding narrative causality. We believe the Pixar of the next century won’t emerge through traditional film or animation, but rather through interactive mix of Videos and Games. And we’re going to build it from India for the world.”

“The holy grail of interactive entertainment is true player agency within a compelling story. This is the challenge that has stumped the industry for decades, and it’s the one we were founded to solve,” said Nilushanan Kulasingham, CEO of Nucanon  “Our goal is to build an AI that doesn’t just generate text, it understands the story. With Zupee’s backing, we now have the resources to take on this challenge at scale”, he added. 

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Founded in 2018 by Dilsher Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh, Zupee was once a major player in the real-money gaming space, with over 150 million registered users. In September, the company laid off around 170 employees—about 30% of its staff—as part of a restructuring move.

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