- Joined
- Feb 17, 2026
- Messages
- 4
- Thread Author
- #1
Firm Name
UmaInc
Which grant pool are you applying for?
Innovation, Startup, Research and Development (R&D)
How do you plan on using your grant funding?
Currently, UmaInc is running Horse Races at c186/c187. We organize Race Days in which we take our UmaInc-registered horses and race them against one another. These horses may be owned by UmaInc or by individuals who purchased the rights to them from UmaInc. This business is fundamentally about entertainment. Race winners will be documented, and throughout the course of a horse's career, they will gain accomplishments, rivalries, and storylines, culminating in the end of their career, where the best horses may be eligible for entry in the UmaInc Racing Hall of Fame. Owners will also be able to breed their horses or purchase horses from other owners to create the strongest racehorse.
Much of the infrastructure and foundational work at c186/c187 have already been completed, and we are happy to announce that we have successfully conducted our first Race Day on March 13. There were 3 races scheduled, which took around an hour to two hours from start to finish, and we had a turnout of 13, other than me. Of the 13, 6 worked as jockeys, 2 owned horses, and the rest were spectators. Aside from the people who showed up to watch the race live, 4 more interacted with the results of the race in our UmaInc discord.
To make UmaInc horse racing, we rely on player interest in the project to create the prestige of winning a race, so people will care about the storylines and results of the horses. To do so, we have invested in a large variety of areas, which either bring in revenue, player interest, or keep things operational. While I have been able to manage the expenses with my own funds, it will be difficult to continue growing the company while operating at a loss. Below is the list of expenses UmaInc will have to take on, as well as breakdowns on why these expenses are necessary, and how they will help the business as well as the economy grow.
-To run Horse Races, we require Jockeys to ride the horses. We currently have 8 jockeys and I who have passed the qualification to work as a jockey and have agreed to work as jockeys. They are CaptAndrewMahn, Cassie45806, Kiwi_Boi_Gamer, Maximus_B06, ContraAsset, Giibbless, Masterlinc, and MicroMantis. They currenetly recieve $0 guaranteed pay for their work, with their earnings derived purely from the profits of the UmaEats food court and my own contributions. For our first 3 races, we had a prize pool of $3,000, $2,200 of which was derived from the Food Court, and $800 of which was my personal contribution. Out of the 6 jockeys who participated in 1 or more races, only ContraAsset, who won one race, and MicroMantis, who won two races, were paid $1000 and $2000, respectively. I believe that despite them doing this work out of passion for the project, such meager wages are unfair. I would like to request $25,000 to help fund a better salary for the jockeys who participate on race day for the next 5 race days while the business is unprofitable. This will equate to $5,000 per race day, or $1,000 per jockey per race day, which will equal to $333 per race. In addition, the winning jockeys will continue being paid from the pool of profits gained from UmaEats, and I will personally match the sum of grants given for this category, which I will put into the winning prize pool.
-On any given Race Day, I require at least 5 jockeys to operate the 5 horses that will participate in each race. This is sometimes difficult, due to scheduling and timezone conflicts, so I estimate that at least 15 jockeys will need to be hired to ensure at least 5 are available on Race Day. To be a jockey, applicants will have to be able to demonstrate that they can consistently complete the jumps placed on the racetrack, to ensure all horses have a fair chance of winning. As such, I would like to be allocated some funding to give jockeys a signing bonus to incentivize new players to obtain work as a jockey. I believe $1000 is a fair sum, which will allow me to train the jockeys more rigorously while compensating them fairly for their time. This means I would like to request $15,000, $8,000 of which would be paid to the current jockeys after they undergo the more rigorous training, as well as $7,000 allocated to new applicants who pass the examination.
-The aforementioned UmaEats Food Court refers to the chestshops located directly above the Underground Racetrack. These chestshops feature almost every single custom food item in the game, as well as custom beverages and alcohol, at a significant 600% ROI markup at minimum. This is because the PROFITS from these overpriced ChestShops will go directly to the prize pool of jockeys, allowing spectators to have a way to directly support the work the jockeys put in. Discounting the hours of manual labour I undertook to create a grocery list to create all of the food, most of which is not being sold in /find, I also ordered 260 items of alcohol from kamecho201 for $5,000, and I generously paid Julimonki a sum of $40,000 for the design of the food court, a high fee which I decided to pay due to the specificity of my designing demands and the difficulty of creating something visually appealing but also operational. In addition to the overpriced chestshops, I also sell the best food items at near production price (the lowest prices in the market) to supply my valued patrons with affordable prices on food. I would like to request $20,000 to help pay for a portion of the already agreed contracts, as well as giving me the financial stability to hire Chefs and Brewers to continue stocking the extremely affordable shops after they sell out. If I receive the grant for this section, I will change the policy of Chest Shops from "Profits" paying out to jockeys to "Revenue" paying out to jockeys.
-With the infrastructure created, UmaInc is now in the process of outreach and advertising their service of Horse Races to the server. Despite how well received it is by the people it is shown to, there is still a large population of the server who has not yet been exposed to this company. I want to expand advertising efforts by acquiring ads in newspapers, in server shoutouts, and by employing tour guides who will show experienced and new players the racetrack, as well as how UmaInc Horse Racing works. For this, I would like to request a total of $15,000, $10,000 of which will be used to purchase advertisements, and $5,000 of which will be paid to UmaInc Tour guides per visitor they give a tour to at a rate of $500 per tour.
-Last but not least is the commission of MapArts for UmaInc. Over the last month, in the weeks of preparation leading up to our first Race Day, I found an artist to Commission artwork of UmaMusume, the globally popular horse girl racing game, which UmaInc was founded after. The artist, Paivaf19, was able to create a beautiful 3 by 4 MapArt of Haru Urara before quitting the server. This Mapart is very beloved by the players of this server, with certain players such as CaptainAndrewMahn expressing the emotional significance of this art (this is not exaggeration lol). Copies of it have been sold to over 9 different players already, less than a month after its creation. I am currently working on employing more Designers to create MapArt similar to it. I provide the source Image, and the map artists are commissioned to recreate it onto the server. Unfortunately, it is not a simple process. Currently, m8tys is working on creating a piece similar to the Haru Urara piece, but production of these arts is a time-consuming process. Each Map Art is currently being commissioned at $15K a piece. I would like to request $30k, which will be used to pay commissions to artists for more pieces, as well as enable the creation of a new company that will train new players in need of low-requirement jobs on how to create Map Art, and consistently employing them for new pieces.
Requested Grant Summarized
-$25,000 for Salaries for Jockeys on Race Days
-$15,000 for Signing Bonuses
-$20,000 for UmaEats supplying costs and designing costs
-$15,000 for Advertisements and tours
-$30,000 for MapArt Commissions and company creation.
Total: $105K
If UmaInc is to receive only a portion of the requested grant, I request that the DoC specify exactly which sections are being approved for grants, so that I can budget appropriately the money being received. If the DoC believes that some sections are worth more grant investment, I will gladly accept any additional funding, and I will properly document and write how those funds will be used to help grow the company and the server appropriately.
Closing statement: UmaInc, as a company, aims to provide entertainment and a gathering place for players on the servers to interact. We are a company that has historically employed many people, who are fair and transparent with their employees and customers, and provide a tangible benefit to the economy of the server. We are a company that has proven we can get things done. We hope that the DoC sees the value in the company and supports the company in its mission to make the server better, one plot at a time.
Ideal Grant Amount $105K
If awarded, I intend to use the grant money allocated to me for its intended purpose on which it was approved for, and provide a breakdown in my application thread of how the funding was used.
Yes