Epic Games, the video game developer that counts corporates Tencent, Walt Disney and Axiomatic as investors, has begun discussions to raise $500m to $1bn in new funding, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
The prospective funding is set to value the company ‘significantly’ above the $15bn valuation at which it last raised money, in a $1.25bn funding round featuring esports team owner Axiomatic in late 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Epic specialises in massive multiplayer online shooting games that make use of its internally developed Unreal Engine. It was best known for the Gears of War franchise until the 2017 release of Fortnite, which had racked up 250 million players as of early 2019.
The company then paid an undisclosed amount to acquire social gaming and video communication app developer Houseparty in June 2019, and the platform has signed up more than 50 million new users during the Covid-19 lockdown.
KKR, Iconiq Capital, Vulcan Capital, Smash Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners also took part in the 2018 round, which came after internet and gaming group Tencent invested $330m in 2012 in return for a 40% stake.
Media and entertainment group Walt Disney is also among Epic’s shareholders according to Bloomberg, as is Endeavor Group Holdings, the holding group for talent agency Endeavor, which was previously known as William Morris Endeavor.
