Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity game development toolkit, was able to raise $181 million in a Series C funding round that values the company at about $1.5 billion.
The funding round was led by DFJ Growth, which also has investments in Tesla Motors, Tumblr and Twitter.
The startup has made a significant mark in both the video game industry and the entertainment industry, with its technology serving as the engine for creating experiences that can be distributed across various platforms with minimal additional work.
Known as a game engine, Unity's suite of tools helps developers create video games, similar to the Unreal Engine of Epic Games. Unity's users have mostly been smaller developers while Epic's clients have mostly been the bigger publishing companies.
However, Unity's stamp on the current state of the video game industry should not be downplayed. Unity's technology is the one powering the massively popular augmented reality mobile game Pokémon GO, with the software the foundation for almost one-third of the top 1,000 mobile games.
The funding that Unity was able to raise is a significant increase compared to the amount collected from its previous funding round, which was only $25.5 million. This shows just how aggressive Unity's growth has been, as it moves to establish its tools as the premiere game engine.
One of the keys for Unity's success has been its quick acceptance of a long list of platforms. While being an underdog in its first years after it launched 12 years ago, its full acceptance of mobile gaming in 2008 allowed Unity to become one of the first platforms that provided support for the iPhone during the early days of Apple's App Store.
Unity will be using the cash to make further improvements to its software for applications in virtual reality and augmented reality. The company's tool has been used in about 90 percent of the content that has so far been released for the Samsung Gear VR headset, and the continuing success of Pokémon GO reveals the potential of augmented reality.
According to DFJ Growth partner Barry Schuler, the platform of Unity has allowed the smallest independent studios and the biggest developers to create top-notch games and experiences. The company is now set to accelerate its focus on augmented reality and virtual reality, which will allow developers to create content that will be easily supported on all compatible platforms.
Unity's involvement in virtual reality was reported in February this year, when it announced with Valve that its platform will have SteamVR support.
