Kohort Raises $7M Series A for AI UA Agents in Gaming

Jan de Vries · 2026-05-08

London-based Kohort just closed a $7 million Series A round to build AI agents that handle user acquisition (UA) for mobile game studios. The company, which specializes in gaming analytics and forecasting, wants to transform how studios attract and retain players. ### The Funding Details The round was led by The Raine Group, a New York-based merchant bank that also backed Kohort's Seed round. Raine focuses on technology, media, and telecom investments, so this fits their playbook perfectly. ### What Makes Kohort Different Kohort's CEO Dan Marcus puts it plainly: "We are building agents -- not just a Claude wrapper -- and the predictions underneath them, to make that possible." He compares top UA teams to high-frequency traders, needing agents that act on real context, not vague signals. Founded in 2018, Kohort uses machine learning and cohort-based forecasting to help studios, operators, finance teams, and investors optimize their UA spend. Their platform also supports M&A due diligence. ### The Core Problem They're Solving According to Kohort, current UA agents are naive. They optimize campaigns without understanding: - How ad network algorithms react to signal changes - The conflict between short-term and long-term LTV (think "whales" who spend big later) - The ultimate goal: wasteless UA spend while scaling revenue Kohort's thesis is simple: in a world where every AI company chases better context, accurate long-term predictions are the only context that matters for UA. ### Three Key Capabilities Kohort's agent suite focuses on three areas: **Campaign Optimization (Ktrl):** Their flagship product generates network-specific bidding strategies for every campaign. It supports ROAS, CPI, and CPE/CPA types, integrating directly with ad networks to push every campaign toward 100% ROAS. **On-Demand Research:** Want to investigate any UA trend? Just click a button. The system cross-references your studio's historical data against nearly $1 billion in annual spend flowing through Kohort's platform. It's like having a senior UA manager on demand. **Automated Reporting:** Tailored decks and reports are generated automatically, so everyone from the CEO to the LiveOps team works from the same source of truth. ### The Tech Behind It All three agents are backed by predictive models trained on $6 billion of historical UA spend across hundreds of games. Kohort says these agents deliver daily campaign-specific predictions with 95% accuracy. The platform integrates with your existing data warehouse and trains client-specific models in under 20 minutes. ### What the Investor Says John Salter, Partner and co-founder at The Raine Group, sees big potential: "Kohort has a clear pathway to become a category-defining platform in UA Agents and solve the biggest problem in mobile apps today." He highlights the lean, AI-native team and the potential for new products around user acquisition financing. ### Why This Matters for US-Based Pros If you're in mobile gaming or consumer apps, this is worth watching. Kohort is essentially building an operating system for UA that could shift how studios allocate their marketing dollars. The $1 billion in annual spend already flowing through their platform suggests they're onto something real. For studios struggling with rising ad costs and complex attribution, tools like this could be a game-changer. And for investors, Kohort's predictive LTV capabilities open doors to financing products that tie directly to user value. Stay tuned -- this space is heating up fast.