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Improbable raises $502 million to further develop its tech

The investment was led by SoftBank, which now takes a non-controlling stake in the company

Improbable, the British technology firm behind the SpatialOS distributed operating system, has gained substantial funds in a Series B financing round led by SoftBank, which now becomes a non-controlling stakeholder. SoftBank's managing director, Deep Nishar, will be joining the Improbable board as part of the deal. The $502 million funding also sees participation from existing Series A investors Andreessen Horowitz, Horizons Ventures and Temasek Holdings.

Improbable is committed to its massive-scale simulation efforts and said that all of the funding will be used to further develop its technology. Additionally, the company now expects "accelerated recruitment" in its London and San Francisco offices, and "investments to develop a vibrant ecosystem of developers and customers."

Improbable CEO Herman Narula commented, "The global games market is already huge, and we believe that far more growth is possible. The kinds of games enabled by SpatialOS - multiplayer games allowing players to form meaningful relationships with games worlds and with each other - will be category-defining, and attract new audiences.

"This investment reflects the potential size and importance of the market for this next generation of games and, ultimately, how massive-scale virtual worlds could become fundamental to how society works. SoftBank is a perfect partner for us, with many complementary investments in their portfolio. This investment will allow us to take the big, bold steps needed to fully realise our vision."

Nishar added, "Improbable is building breakthrough technologies that are becoming vital and valuable platforms for the global gaming industry. Beyond gaming, this new form of simulation on a massive scale has the potential to help us make better decisions about the world we live in.

"Improbable's technology will help us explore disease, improve cities, understand economies and solve complex problems on a previously unimaginable scale. Along with Machine Learning and IoT, Improbable's distributed computation technology represents a critical next frontier in computing."

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James Brightman

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James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously EIC and co-founder of IndustryGamers and spent several years leading GameDaily Biz at AOL prior to that.