Board, the New Game Startup by Mirror Founder Brynn Putnam, Raises $20M and Sells Thousands of Units.

Board, a three-year-old startup based in New York that focuses on “together tech”—technology designed to bring people together in the same physical space—has successfully raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures.

Michael Mignano, a General Partner at USV and making his initial investment since joining the firm, will take a seat on Board’s board of directors. This funding round has drawn interest from prominent angel investors, including Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Belsky.

This funding comes about eight months after founder Brynn Putnam, who earlier sold the connected fitness startup Mirror to Lululemon for $500 million, introduced Board publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt last October.

The Board device features a 24-inch touchscreen set in a wood-finish frame and utilizes proprietary technology to recognize physical game pieces, blending the tactile experience of traditional board games with the engagement of video games.

Since its launch, Board has seen impressive traction, with its product now in tens of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and restaurants across all 50 states. Remarkably, 85% of customers participate in 30 or more play sessions each month.

Alongside this funding, Board announced the upcoming debut of Board Studio, an AI-powered platform that will allow users to design original games using natural language prompts—turning concepts into playable prototypes in under an hour.

Previously, Board secured $15 million in funding led by Lerer Hippeau, the same firm that spearheaded Mirror’s earlier $3 million seed round. This investment proved fruitful when Putnam sold Mirror to Lululemon in 2020.

Putnam considers Board a natural progression of her experience with consumer hardware gained while developing Mirror. “Mirror was very much about me,” she told TechCrunch. “It was my reflection and performance, focused on self-improvement. Now, my life revolves around family, friends, and connections.”

The end result is a product rooted in the increasingly popular notion that technology should encourage people to put down their devices and engage in face-to-face interactions.

This funding comes at a time when consumer technology, which has been less favored by investors, is starting to show signs of recovery, largely driven by new opportunities in AI.

“I’m more excited about consumer tech than I’ve been in a long time,” noted Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau, in a recent conversation with TechCrunch. “We’re seeing a strong group of founders saying, ‘Now’s the time to dive back in.’ There are opportunities today that didn’t exist six months to a year ago, and the momentum is substantial.”