Improbable just took another chunk of investment to expand into China

Improbable's technology facilitates the creation of virtual worlds on thousands of machines 
Improbable's co-founder Herman Narula
Improbable
Amelia Heathman27 July 2018

One of the UK’s most exciting start-ups Improbable just received $50 million in investment from Chinese tech company NetEase which will see it expand into Asia.

The investment saw NetEase purchases new shares in the start-up, as well as some existing shares, to take a small stake in the London-based venture.

Reports say this takes Improbable’s valuation up to $2 billion.

Improbable broke all the headlines last year when this seemingly innocuous company took $502 million in investment from Japanese company SoftBank to break the coveted $1 billion valuation barrier and with talk that it was building the real-life Matrix.

The hype around Improbably centres on its ground-breaking SpatialOS software. In gaming, the cloud-based technology allows game makers to design and build games that can run on several servers, therefore making the games more realistic and engaging.

Recently, Bossa Studios launched Worlds Adrift, the first game built using SpatialOS which sees players explore a universe in the sky, building ships, finding treasures and collaborating with other players.

But, SpatialOS can also support city plans and models for society.

Co-founder Herman Narula told the Standard: “We are building something like The Matrix and what that means is running virtual worlds on thousands of machines. Virtual worlds give a chance to rehearse and train thousands of people in real-world situations in everything from heavy industry to defence.”

As part of the investment from NetEase, one of the world’s biggest gaming companies, it will see the Chinese company using SpatialOS for its next gaming project.

The first NetEase/SpatialOS game will be announced later this year.

Worlds Adrift is the first game built using Improbable's SpatialOS
Bossa Studios

In addition, Improbable says it is going to be recruiting in China to support game developers that want to build “previously impossible games” across Asia, to expand the reach and potential of SpatialOS.

In a statement, the start-up said: “This investment signals NetEase’s commitment to innovation in game-related technology, and its belief in the potential of SpatialOS to be the fundamental technology platform powering the next generation of online games, and connects Improbable with one of the world’s most successful developers and publishers of online games.

“This is just the beginning of our plan to make our SpatialOS technology more accessible to developers in China and the Asia Pacific region.”

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