SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Jul 20, 2011) - Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for awesome games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today announced that it secured $12 million in a Series B financing round led by WestSummit Capital in China and iGlobe Partners in Singapore. Raymond Yang, Founding Partner and Managing Director of WestSummit Capital, will join Unity Technologies' board. Current investor Sequoia Capital also participated in this round. Unity Technologies plans to use the funding to accelerate technology roadmaps, expand into Asia and continue its mission of democratizing game development."We've been accelerating our growth on all fronts," said David Helgason, Co-Founder and CEO of Unity Technologies. "First, we've been hiring stellar engineers at an accelerating clip in order to help Unity developers amaze their users. Second, we've been introducing new initiatives, like our Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service. Third, we've been expanding into verticals such as Military and Visual Simulations, Gambling, and Media and Brand Companies, which already make up a significant portion of our revenues. Fourth, we've doubled the team in the last year across six offices worldwide and are setting up shop in Asia to help our rapidly expanding developer base there make better use of the Unity platform."
Helgason continued: "For our next expansion phase, we decided to work with WestSummit Capital and iGlobe Partners because of their incredible understanding of and networks in Asia -- our most strategic growth area -- and their understanding of the region's market dynamics. The fact that they're great people doesn't hurt either.""Unity's cross platform solution has been highly regarded as the best 3D game development platform among China developers and enabled them to develop highly differentiated gaming products," said Raymond Yang, Founding Partner and Managing Director of WestSummit Capital. "We see China as the largest growing market for Unity Technologies, and we are strategically well positioned to help the company further penetrate the market and realize the full potential of doing business in China.""We seek and back companies that are transforming industries, and Unity Technologies is one of these companies. Developers have consistently recognized Unity as a leader in 3D game technology and user experience," said Michel Birnbaum, Partner at iGlobe Partners. "With its visionary products that let developers deploy across heterogeneous platforms and quickly reach huge audiences for their games coupled with an industry changing business model, Unity Technologies is in a unique position to become the gold standard for game development worldwide. iGlobe looks forward to working with the Unity team in its Asia expansion strategy."
"Unity Technologies has an exceptional team that is executing on the company's vision to democratize game development," said Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia Capital. "The company is capitalizing on a large and expanding market opportunity as users worldwide look to create rich interactive 3D content across smartphone, tablet, PC and console platforms."
About WestSummit
WestSummit Capital Management is a global private equity fund focusing on growth to late stage Technology and CleanTech investment opportunities. Its partners have been successful entrepreneurs and investors behind many leading technology and internet companies both in US and China. Backed by the most prestigious financial institutions from China, it applies a unique "China value creation" strategy to investments by leveraging its hands-on operational experience and extensive network of resources, including strong connections with the Chinese government, close ties with technology and industry leaders in China and partnerships with leading investors and corporations across the US, Europe and Pacific Rim. With offices in Beijing and Palo Alto, WestSummit is committed to helping its portfolio companies realize the full potential of doing business in China and become industry leaders on a global basis.
About iGlobe Partners
iGlobe Partners is a leading Asia Pacific Venture Capital firm whose multi-cultural team bridges Western and Asian understanding and practices. Headquartered in Singapore, with presence in Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Auckland (NZ), iGlobe has long established networks and relationships within the international venture community, with major corporate and industry players, entrepreneurs and government organizations. With decades of technology investment experience and deep cross-border expertise, iGlobe is in a unique position to organize international investment syndicates, having guided portfolio companies over multiple business cycles, to scale their business globally to successful exits. Red Herring selected iGlobe Partners in 2009/10 as Top 100 Global VC. For more information, go to: https://www.iglobepartners.com.About Sequoia CapitalSequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into enduring companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of NetApp, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of NVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Networks, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Omar Hamoui of AdMob, Steve Streit of Green Dot and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn. For more information, visit: www.sequoiacap.com.
About Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies is revolutionizing the game industry with Unity, its award-winning breakthrough development platform. Unity Technologies has more than 500,000 registered users worldwide -- including Bigpoint, Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Disney, Electronic Arts, LEGO, Microsoft, NASA, Nickelodeon, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., large and small studios, indies, students and hobbyists -- all using Unity to create games and interactive 3D, like training simulations and medical and architectural visualizations, on the web, mobile, consoles and beyond. Unity Technologies is aggressively innovating to expand usability, power and platform reach along with its Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service so that it can deliver on its vision of democratizing interactive 3D technology. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has development offices worldwide. For more information, visit: https://unity3d.com.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unity3dTwitter: https://twitter.com/unity3d
About Unite 11
Unity Technologies is holding Unite 11, its fifth annual developer conference, September 28 - 30, 2011 at the Masonic Center in San Francisco. Unite 11 is an event for developers, publishers, enthusiasts and others interested in Unity to come together to learn more about the market-leading platform for creating high quality video games, training simulations, medical and architectural visualizations and other 3D interactive content -- and how to get the most out of it. Unite 11 will offer three days of learning including advanced hands-on class tutorials, technical sessions and an opportunity to attend awesome parties. For more information on Unite 11, simply visit: https://unity3d.com/unite/.