PlayonderCorporate team days
~116,000 US firms with 100+ staff, reached through event organisers.
$139MWe are raising $500,000 to take Playonder to US organisers, campuses and cities.
The platform is built and has run real events. The next 18 months are about paying customers who come back.
- Round
- $500,000 pre-seed
- Instrument
- Post-money SAFE
- Terms
- On request
- Runway
- 18 months
- Team after close
- 3 founders + 1 engineer
Where we are.
Earlier versions of the product ran two large events for HDFX, the event company of co-founder Miki Hay, and its clients. Three smaller field tests followed. A heritage trail in Singapore is in preparation.
Founder-reported approximate attendance, not unique or paying users. Payments for past events went to HDFX; platform revenue is not yet reported.
What is built.
A mobile-browser game with GPS checkpoints, team play, camera recognition trained from organiser photos, pose matching, view matching, compass hunts and voice questions with generated narration. Organisers work in an admin panel with a route editor, teams, logs and reports.
One engine, four US buyers who repeat every year.
We start with corporate team days sold through event organisers, then add campuses and cities. Schools come through city and museum partners.
Campuses
~3,500 colleges. A new cohort every fall: orientation, admissions tours, reunions.
$9MCities and counties
~3,100 cities of 10,000+. Heritage and newcomer trails, festivals, local sponsors.
$18MSchools
~12,500 school districts. Field trips on city and museum trails.
$6MBase-case US serviceable market: ~$170M a yearRange $40M to $440M. Accounts × adoption × annual price.
Bottom-up estimate with unvalidated assumptions. Counts from Census SUSB 2019, Census of Governments 2022, Census places 2019 and NCES 2021–22.
A real category, a specific direction.
Location-based team games exist. We compete on interactions that need the place itself and on how quickly an organiser can build a new route.
Loquiz
Platform for team-building and event companies since 2010, used in 35+ countries. Players use the Loquiz app; pay-per-use from €9 per player.
Pricing pageGoosechase
Camera, text and GPS missions with app and browser play. Plans for education and civic groups.
Pricing pageActionbound
Browser authoring for mobile adventures and guides, played in its mobile app.
Product pagePlayonder
The camera confirms the team reached the object. Recognition trained from organiser photos, poses from a photo, generated narration. Browser only.
Positioning hypothesis, not a proven moat. Competitor pages reviewed 15–16 September 2026.
Three founders: the idea, the platform and the market.
Founders currently work part-time on Playonder and go full-time from the first close.
Aleksandra Makhrova
Co-founder and CEOBuilt production software on Microsoft’s Azure Storage team and shipped the Bili app to the App Store. Based in the Bay Area; leads customer discovery and go-to-market.
LinkedIn
Vladimir Fedorov
Co-founder and CTOTwenty years building data-intensive software. Led Typetastic, used by four million students, and worked on high-scale systems at Bright Data. Built the Playonder platform.
Personal website
Miki Hay
Co-founder, Events and PartnershipsFounder and Managing Director of Singapore-based HDFX, established in 2004. Two decades of event production and brand activation. Originated the Playonder idea.
LinkedInThe next 18 months.
Planning targets, not forecasts. The schedule depends on the team and funding.
Set up
US company, IP assignment and baseline metrics: setup time, completion, support effort.
3 paid US pilots
Corporate organisers first, one campus pilot before fall intake.
Organiser workspace
Multi-organiser accounts, so a customer can launch a repeat event without us.
Repeatable revenue
15 paying customers across two segments; 40% book again.
Use of funds
A planning budget of $22,000 a month before reserve. No future revenue is assumed. Payroll taxes still need localisation.
| Team compensation | $324,000 |
| Pilots, sales and travel | $36,000 |
| Infrastructure and administration | $36,000 |
| Reserve and unallocated buffer | $104,000 |
| Total | $500,000 |
Investor questions.
What do the attendance numbers mean?
They are founder-reported attendance across earlier versions of the product, not unique users, paying customers or verified completions.
How is HDFX related to Playonder?
HDFX is the event company of co-founder Miki Hay. It commissioned the earlier games and ran them for its clients, and remains a channel partner in Singapore. Its own games stay on HDFX domains; new customer games run on Playonder.
Who owns the technology?
Vladimir Fedorov wrote and holds the code. All platform rights will be assigned to the US company we form before the first close.
Is there revenue?
Not yet on Playonder’s books. Past event payments went to HDFX. Pricing is a hypothesis we will test in paid pilots.
Is Berkeley a university partnership?
No. Berkeley was a one-person field test of the trail format. No partnership is claimed.
Let’s talk.
Read the deck, then write to the founders.