Improbable is now worth $ 2 billion after NetEase investment

Improbable, the British technology start-up supported by SoftBank, doubled its valuation after taking the strategic investment of the Chinese gaming giant NetEase.

The company raised 50 million dollars (38 million pounds sterling) for the issuance of new shares, and NetEase also acquired existing shares, which gave it a small stake in the start-up .

The new funding places improbable valuation at around $ 2 billion. The company's latest value was estimated at around $ 1 billion in May 2017 after receiving a $ 502 million injection from the Japanese technology giant SoftBank.

Improbable plans to open offices in China as part of the deal, and co-founder Peter Lipka will relocate from London to run the Chinese business. The firm currently has seven field staff in Guangzhou's large center and plans to build a full engineering team, "said Herman Narula, CEO of Business Insider.

"This will probably be one of our biggest presences outside of the UK," Narula said.

China is the world's largest gaming market and is expected to generate $ 37.9 billion in revenue this year, according to consulting firm NewZoo, long before the United States and Japan. It is difficult for western companies to enter the market, however, with the local giants Tencent game and NetEase dominating. NetEase achieved a $ 2.2 billion turnover in the fourth quarter of 2017, mainly thanks to the games and its clone of the game PUBG, Knives Out, which brought together 100 million registered players, according to figures from the society.

The partnership with Improbable will allow NetEase to access the flagship technology of the startup, SpatialOS, intended to power mega games online. SpatialOS is nascent, but the Bossa game studio recently launched the first game on SpatialOS, the massively multiplayer online game Worlds Adrift. Improbable also announced this year that it would fund a new game on SpatialOS from the independent gaming studio Midwinter Entertainment.

Improbable will help develop and launch new NetEase games running on technology, which Narula hopes to attract from other major developers.

The company plans to establish a stronger position in China, Narula added. He said he already saw a significant impact on the country's revenue, and think it will be a big driver underway.

"We are talking to everyone now, this is by no means exclusive," he told Business Insider. "We have partially opened the office because of the partnership with NetEase, but we are now approaching all major players in China."

Narula prefers not to talk too much about improbable spiral valorization – "it makes the journey of a start-up" – but he thinks his company is the first non-public company SoftBank to go up in value so quickly. SoftBank, through its $ 93 billion Vision Fund, supported companies such as Uber and took a stake in the ARM chip company.

"We are very happy with this, we are very happy to validate Masa's belief [SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son] in us," said Narula. "A big part of the story for us is, here is a massive strategic partner, and who says 'All of this is good and we want to adopt it.'"