Unity takes $400 million investment from Silver Lake
Half of the money will let employees and shareholders cash out of the company
Unity Technologies has taken a $400 million investment from Silver Lake Partners, which values the engine company at $2.6 billion.
John Riccitiello, the company's CEO, told Bloomberg that around half of the money is to "allow employees and some early shareholders" to cash out of the company. "A big chunk of it is secondary and that's because it makes sense to let employees buy cars," he said.
The primary capital is "for safety," Riccitiello added, as Unity seeks to capitalise on its position of dominance in growing markets like VR and AR. According to one of Bloomberg's sources, SIlver Lake's investment was made at a $2.6 billion valuation of Unity.
Unity, which now has 1,400 employees, took on a $118 million investment from DFJ in July last year, with the stated aim of driving its growth in the emerging VR and AR markets.
"The second act that I think attracts a lot of investors and investor interest is the fact that we have about 70 percent of AR and VR content built on Unity," Riccitiello said. "We've got a first wave that is going really really well and we have a second one that is dominant."