I wonder how much money was received at the first stage.
I can assume that from 0.5 to 1 million dollars. Developer time is very expensive, development has been going on for many months.
If you are right, it turns out the team has made significant investments in this project. Therefore, they are most interested in its success.
Such investments show that the team is confident in the correctness of its concept and believes in the profitability of the project.