Silver Lake Announces Strategic Investment in Unity Technologies

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Unity Technologies, the largest global development platform for creating 2D, 3D, virtual and augmented reality games and experiences, announced today an investment by Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, of up to $400 million in the company. The primary use of new capital will be driving growth in Unity's augmented and virtual reality capabilities and in its core engine. Silver Lake Managing Partner Egon Durban will join Unity's board of directors.

"Our mission to help game developers bring their disparate creative visions to life has enabled us to create a rapidly expanding global platform with enormous growth potential both within and beyond gaming," said John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity. "We look forward to partnering with Silver Lake, with its proven technology industry expertise, to enhance Unity's next stage of growth, allowing us to accelerate the advance of augmented and virtual reality in both gaming and non-gaming markets and continue to democratize development."

Unity is the leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure for gaming. Every month, developers using the Unity platform create more than 90,000 unique applications, which are downloaded over 1.7 billion times per month. Over the past two years, the company has leveraged its long history as a game engine provider to expand into new offerings, including a market-leading in-game mobile ad network and a widely deployed analytics tool using machine learning and data science. Unity has also established 3D visualization and virtual and augmented reality partnerships with Facebook, Microsoft and Google, as well as non-gaming firms and institutions, including Gensler, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Audi.

The company is experiencing dramatic growth. At the end of the first quarter of 2017 unique devices containing apps made with Unity technology increased 40% year-over-year to more than two billion, and unique devices served every month by Unity's ad network increased more than 50% year-over-year to approximately one billion.

"Unity's revolutionary development platform and its exposure to strategic mobile, gaming, and virtual and augmented reality markets is poised to create multiple new high-growth opportunities for the company, its developer community, and its enterprise partners in the years to come," said Durban. "We are very excited to partner with John Riccitiello and his world-class team, along with the company's existing investors, to achieve Unity's long-term strategic vision and realize its full growth potential."

"It's been a privilege to work with Unity as they've evolved from a small startup to the largest gaming development platform in the world," said Roelof Botha, a Sequoia Capital partner. "In the past year, we've been blown away at how quickly they've written their next chapter of growth: they're already the top choice for developers building augmented and virtual reality games."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

About Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies is the creator of a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences. Unity's powerful graphics engine and full-featured editor serve as the foundation to develop beautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personal computers, and embedded systems. Unity also offers solutions and services for creating games, boosting productivity, and connecting with audiences including Unity Ads, Unity Analytics, Unity Asset Store, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Collaborate, Unity Connect and Unity Certification. Unity Technologies serves millions of registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. For more information, visit www.unity3d.com and to see the latest games and experiences created in Unity, go to madewith.unity.com.

About Silver Lake
Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing, with about $39 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and value creation professionals located in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Silver Lake's portfolio of investments collectively generates more than $140 billion of revenue annually and employs more than 300,000 people globally. The firm's current portfolio includes leading technology and technology-enabled businesses such as Alibaba Group, Ancestry, Broadcom Limited, Cast & Crew, Ctrip, Dell Technologies, Fanatics, Global Blue, GoDaddy, Motorola Solutions, Red Ventures, Sabre, SoFi, SolarWinds, Symantec, and WME│IMG. For more information about Silver Lake and its entire portfolio, please visit www.silverlake.com

About Sequoia Capital
The Sequoia team helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. We spur them to push the boundaries of what's possible. In partnering with Sequoia, companies benefit from our unmatched community and the lessons we've learned over 40 years working with Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, John Morgridge, Jerry Yang, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Jan Koum, Brian Chesky, Drew Houston, Adi Tatarko and Jack Dorsey, among many others. In aggregate, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 20% of NASDAQ's total value. We're proud that their success also fuels great causes. The vast majority of money we invest is on behalf of non-profits and schools like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT, which means that the returns generated from the incredible achievements of founders can make a massive difference.

Media Contacts
Unity Technologies
Amanda Taggart
[email protected]

Silver Lake
Patricia Graue, 212-333-3810
[email protected]

SOURCE Silver Lake