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Unity Technologies, the Platform Behind Pokémon GO, Closes $181M Series C Financing

Pokémon GO developed by Unity Technologies
Pokémon GO is developed by Unity Technologies

San Francisco-based game developer engine Unity Technologies announced this week that it has raised $181 million in Series C financing. The funding round was led by DFJ Growth, with participation from China Investment Corporation, FreeS Fund, Thrive Capital and Max Levchin, chief executive of Affirm and co-founder and former CTO of PayPal.

Unity Technologies was founded in 2004. The company provides gaming developers with an end-to-end platform to create 2D, 3D, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games across multiple interfaces, including mobile devices, home entertainment systems, and personal computers. According to the company, the Unity platform is behind 90 percent of gear-based VR content to date. Nearly a third of the 1,000 highest-grossing mobile games in the world were developed using Unity — among them Pokémon GO, the AR mobile game that is obsessing millennials all over the U.S. and U.K. and attracted nearly 21 million daily active users (DAU) in the U.S. within seven days of its release earlier this month. Pokemon Go has already become the most popular mobile game in U.S. history, eclipsing another viral hit, Candy Crush Saga, which at its peak had 20 million DAU.

Barry Schuler, partner at DFJ Growth | Credit: dfj.com

Barry Schuler, partner at DFJ Growth | Credit: dfj.com

“Unity’s platform has revolutionized the game industry by allowing any size studio from Indie to Triple-A to create beautiful and compelling games,” said Barry Schuler, partner at DFJ Growth, who is joining Unity’s board of directors. “Now Unity is poised to accelerate the advance of AR/VR with their unique ‘write once/publish many’ engine, which allows studios to easily support all hardware platforms without having to attempt to choose a winner.”

Unity Technologies currently has 1,000 employees operating in 20 cities around the globe. It boasts 5.5 million developer users, including game developers from large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists.