Epic Games, the maker of hit video game Fortnite and Unreal Engine, revealed today (August 6) that it has raised a $1.78 billion round of funding.
This round, according to Epic, includes the $250 million strategic investment from Sony Corporation announced last month.
Epic’s post-money equity valuation is now $17.3bn.
The funding round consists of primary capital and secondary purchases from employee equity holders.
Additional investment partners include Scottish investment firm Baillie Gifford, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and David Tepper.
Existing investors KKR and Smash Ventures also added to their 2018 investment.
Following the closing of the funding round Epic will continue to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and will remain controlled by its founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.
By acquiring a stake in Epic Games last month, Sony joins Tencent, which owns 40% of the North Carolina-based interactive entertainment company via a $330m investment made in 2012.
According to Sony: “The investment cements an already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces the shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services.”
in May, MBW revealed that Sony Music was hiring for an in-house team to “dedicated to reimagining music through immersive media”, with a specialism in working with Epic’s Unreal Engine.
As of May, Epic’s Fortnite game had over 350 million registered players.
In April, Fortnite players spent over 3.2 billion hours in game, according to a Tweet from Epic Games.
“Having the support of leaders in the financial community accelerates Epic’s efforts to build a new kind of digital ecosystem.”
Tim Sweeney, Epic
Tim Sweeney said: “Having the support of leaders in the financial community accelerates Epic’s efforts to build a new kind of digital ecosystem using real-time 3D technology, services that connect hundreds of millions of people, and a digital storefront that offers a fair business model.
“We are delighted to have them as part of the Epic family.”
Credit Suisse and The Raine Group acted as joint placement agents to Epic, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati provided legal counsel to Epic.
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