Heroic Labs

What Heroic Labs does

Heroic Labs (legal entity GameUp Online, Inc.) builds social and multiplayer infrastructure for games and apps, distributed as a composable open source stack. Its products are Nakama, an open source game backend framework providing authentication, sessions, storage, friends, groups, real-time chat, matchmaking, leaderboards, and tournaments; Hiro, a toolkit of pre-built meta-game systems (economy, inventory, achievements, energy, streaks, teams); Satori, a LiveOps platform for events, audience segmentation, A/B testing, feature flags, and player messaging; and Heroic Cloud, a managed deployment and scaling platform for the stack. The technology supports 15+ game engines via cross-platform client SDKs and runs on PostgreSQL or CockroachDB, with over 243,000 engineering hours invested and customers reporting 2.2M+ concurrent users per title.

The company serves game studios across mobile, PC, console, and VR, with named customers including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Paradox Interactive, Remedy Entertainment, Bandai Namco, Mattel, Halfbrick, Gram Games, Kwalee, Spatial, and Wildlight, and claims $5B+ in annual customer revenue running on its infrastructure. Heroic Labs monetizes through Heroic Cloud subscriptions, Nakama Enterprise and Satori/Hiro commercial licenses, and paid support and professional services engagements, supplemented by a GTM partnership with Databricks. The company was founded in 2015 by three backend engineers (CEO Christopher Molozian, CTO Andrei Mihu, COO Mo Firouz), is a Y Combinator alum, has remained profitable for a decade after explicitly excluding traditional venture capital, and now employs 1-10 people across an HQ in San Francisco with the legal entity registered in Delaware.

Name

Heroic Labs

Legal name

GameUp Online, Inc.

Website

https://heroiclabs.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Heroic Labs builds open source social and multiplayer game infrastructure (Nakama, Hiro, Satori, Heroic Cloud) used by studios from indie developers to AAA publishers including EA, Zynga, and Bandai Namco, monetizing via cloud subscriptions, enterprise licenses, and support.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Game Backend Infrastructure

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Game Backend & LiveOps Platforms (BaaS/Analytics/Hosting) (BPAMAKAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Networking, Multiplayer & Backend Middleware (MPAFAFAE)

Keywords

• Game backend infrastructure
• Multiplayer game development
• Liveops platform
• Game server software
• Open source game engine

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Heroic Cloud Subscription: Managed cloud platform revenue from deploying and scaling Nakama and Satori clusters with dedicated resources. Subscription-based pricing for cloud infrastructure.
2. Enterprise Licenses: Paid licensing for Nakama Enterprise and commercial support, plus Hiro and Satori products. Bootstrapped company that rebuilt platform on open source model after pivoting.
3. Commercial Support: Direct access to Heroic Labs team over chat, syncs, priority phone support and face-to-face meetings. Expert development resources while building, launching and scaling games.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Heroic Labs builds and sells a composable software platform called the Heroic Game Stack for online and multiplayer game development. The stack centers on Nakama, an open source game backend framework, and is extended by Hiro (a meta game features toolkit), Satori (a LiveOps platform), and Heroic Cloud (a managed deployment platform), sold to game studios of all sizes.

Product overview

Heroic Labs offers a composable product stack centered on Nakama, an open source game backend framework. The stack includes Hiro as a Nakama toolkit for rapid development of standardized meta game features (economy, achievements, inventory, teams), Satori as a LiveOps platform for player engagement optimization (events, segmentation, experiments, feature flags), and Heroic Cloud as a managed deployment platform. The products work together as an integrated game development ecosystem: Nakama provides the core backend infrastructure for multiplayer and social features, Hiro extends it with game-specific meta systems, Satori enables data-driven player operations, and Heroic Cloud simplifies deployment and scaling.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Nakama: The leading open source game backend for online and social games, providing social gameplay, rich multiplayer experiences, and competitive community features. Customizable with JavaScript, Go and Lua.
• Hiro
• Satori
• Heroic Cloud

Products and services

• Nakama The leading open source game backend framework for building social multiplayer games, featuring authentication, sessions, storage, friends, groups, parties, real-time chat, multiplayer matchmaking, leaderboards, tournaments, and notifications. Customizable with JavaScript, Go, and Lua runtimes, and used by game studios across mobile, console, PC, and VR platforms.
• Hiro A Nakama toolkit to rapidly build standardized meta game features including achievements, auctions, challenges, economy (virtual currencies, virtual store, rewarded video), energy systems, event leaderboards, incentives, inventory, progression, stats, streaks, teams, and unlockables. Sold via commercial licensing to game studios.
• Satori LiveOps platform providing events, audiences, feature flags, experiments, A/B testing, segmentation, performance monitoring, player messaging, and data lake exports (BigQuery, Snowflake) for engagement and retention optimization. Sold via subscription to game LiveOps teams.
• Heroic Cloud Managed cloud platform for deploying and scaling Nakama and Satori, featuring dedicated cloud resources, automatic scaling, organization and team management, CI/CD support, and enterprise options including private cloud, VPC peering, and SSO. Sold via subscription.

Quantifiable outcome

• 243,000+ engineering hours saved through pre-built infrastructure
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• DatabrickscoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 3 March 2025Databricks includes Heroic Labs in their expanded startup offer for game studios at GDC 2025. The offer provides three months free of HeroicLabs' Satori and 25% off Hiro's licensing for a year. This ecosystem partnership positions Heroic Labs alongside EPAM and Sigma Computing in Databricks' gaming showcase.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• AccelByte: Game backend-as-a-service platform offering multiplayer, matchmaking, economy, and LiveOps, originally incubated at Epic Games. Competes with Heroic's full-stack positioning for online game studios, including notable indie and AAA deployments.
• Photon Engine (Exit Games): A long-standing multiplayer networking and realtime backend provider with Unity, Unreal, and Godot SDKs. Closest comparable to Nakama in scope (multiplayer, matchmaking, rooms, voice) and target customer (cross-platform game studios).
• Pragma: Game backend platform offering social, multiplayer, economy, and LiveOps APIs for studios. Highly comparable to Heroic in product scope, architecture (API-first game services), and target market of mid-market to AAA game studios.
• Microsoft Azure PlayFab: Microsoft's game backend platform offering multiplayer servers, leaderboards, matchmaking, LiveOps, and economy services. Directly competes with Heroic's Nakama + Satori stack for the same game studio customers, with the advantage of native Azure cloud integration.
• Unity Gaming Services (Multiplayer & Vivox): Unity's portfolio of multiplayer, voice chat, matchmaking, and LiveOps tools bundled with the Unity engine ecosystem. Competes head-to-head with Heroic on real-time multiplayer and social features, especially for Unity-based studios.
• Beamable: Backend-as-a-service for live games with LiveOps, economy, and multiplayer features targeting Unity and other engine developers. Directly comparable product surface to Heroic's Nakama + Hiro + Satori combination.

Broad incumbents

• Epic Online Services: Free cross-platform online services from Epic Games (auth, matchmaking, lobbies, voice, achievements). Competes with Heroic on social/multiplayer features but is bundled with Unreal Engine and offered at zero cost, with massive Epic distribution behind it.
• AWS GameLift: Amazon's dedicated game server hosting and matchmaking service integrated into the AWS ecosystem. Overlaps with Heroic Cloud's managed deployment and multiplayer matchmaking capabilities, with the advantage of broader AWS account relationships.
• GameSparks (Amazon): Game backend service originally an independent SaaS, now operated under Amazon Web Services. Competes with Nakama on backend services (auth, data, multiplayer) but is positioned as part of the broader AWS portfolio rather than a developer-led open source product.

Emerging players

• Metaplay: Live game backend platform offering LiveOps, player progression, economy, and engagement tools. Comparable to Heroic's Satori LiveOps and Hiro meta-game toolkit for studios needing data-driven player operations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/heroicdev
• GitHubgithub.com/heroiclabs
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@heroiclabs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/heroic-labs

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Heroic Labs