Prosus Ventures has announced its investment in Ursula, a Brazilian startup focused on creating emotionally intelligent AI characters. The company raised R$20 million (approximately $4 million USD) in a funding round led by Village Global, Prosus Ventures, and Worldbuild.VC, with additional support from Betaworks, Norte Ventures, and other angel investors.
Ursula is developing an infrastructure layer for AI-native characters that blend symbolic AI, memory, and narrative design to create lifelike digital beings. These characters are designed to evolve, remember interactions, and form emotional bonds with users. Ursula’s proprietary “Artificial Life Engine” uses large language models (LLMs), symbolic AI, and long-term memory to produce autonomous characters capable of changing over time.
The startup was founded by a team with experience at Pixar, Unity, Blizzard, and Google. Their goal is to bring lifelike characters into digital environments for storytelling, games, entertainment, and more. The company’s mobile proof-of-concept has shown strong user engagement.
Thiago Viana from Prosus Ventures Latin America expressed the company’s focus on supporting startups like Ursula that are innovating through artificial intelligence. He stated: “The investment in Ursula reflects our focus in Brazil and Latin America… We’re proud to support Pedro and the team in their road ahead.”
Pedro Lucca, Co-Founder and CEO of Ursula said: “We’re thrilled to partner with investors who see both the value and long-term opportunity in building at the intersection of creativity and deep tech… Our vision is to bring truly lifelike characters into the world—enabling people to connect…”
Prosus’ investment highlights its commitment to Latin America as a region for innovation. The company has previously backed successful ventures such as iFood.
Ursula aims to become a foundational infrastructure provider for emotionally aware characters across various sectors including entertainment and education.
