The story
Founded by Herman Narula in 2012.1
2012–2015
Co-founders Herman Narula and Rob Whitehead obtained computer science degrees from Cambridge University at Girton and Robinson Colleges, respectively. They met at Cambridge Computer Labs in the months leading up to Narula's graduation; Narula was specialising in computer vision and Whitehead in graphics. The third co-founder Peter Lipka was a student at Imperial College, London before taking a job as a developer for Goldman Sachs. Narula and Whitehead shared a lifelong interest in video games, with Whitehead boosting his student income by making and selling weapons in Second Life. The three founders would go on to become Improbable's CEO, Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer/Asian CEO, respectively.
The company initially developed a platform to assist video game developers in creating large-scale simulations. This culminated in SpatialOS, a distributed operating system for massive-scale simulations which integrated with major game engines.
Initially, the business was run from Narula's parents' Hertfordshire house, Hyver Hall, through to the end of 2013, with Whitehead moving into the Narula family home. Seed funding came from a $1m Narula family loan and $1.2m from angel investors. Early-stage funders included the Wired journalist David Rowan (the first outside investor), UK VCs Saul and Robin Klein, Acorn Computer co-founder Hermann Hauser, Jawbone co-founder Alex Asseily, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, Transferwise founder Taavet Hinrikus, Amadeus Capital Partners, Conversion Capital and UK tech investor Marcus Exall.
In March 2015, the firm received a $20m Series A investment from Andreessen Horowitz, with Chris Dixon taking a board seat. Other series A investors included Horizons Ventures and Temasek.
The firm partnered with Google in December 2016. SpatialOS was released into open beta in February 2017. The first games built on the technology were Worlds Adrift by Bossa Studios and Lazarus by Spilt Milk Studio.
2016–2019
In 2016 Improbable won a multi-year contract with the US Army to provide war-gaming simulations.
In May 2017 Improbable received $502m in a round of Series B funding, led by SoftBank. At the time, it was the largest ever VC investment in a European technology firm. Softbank's investment was non-controlling, although its managing partner Deep Nishar joined Improbable's board. Andreessen Horowitz and Horizons Ventures made follow-on investments in the same round. Improbable recorded revenue of £7.9m for the 12 months to May 2017, most of which arose from its 2016 US Army deal. In the same year, the firm also received £876,960 funding from Innovate UK.
In 2018, Improbable raised $100m from Chinese internet group NetEase, valuing the firm in excess of $2bn. It also founded an office in Edmonton, Canada, with BioWare's Aaryn Flynn joining as manager for North America.
Read the full text
In 2019 Improbable signed an £11.5m contract with UK Strategic Command and a £2.3m contract with the British Army. In the same year, the firm underwent a terms of service dispute with Unity Technologies, the latter blocking several SpatialOS games. Improbable partnered with Epic Games (makers of the competing Unreal Engine) to create a US$25 million assistance fund to help developers affected by the dispute, which has since been resolved.
Between 2018 and 2020 Improbable made three acquisitions, buying German cloud computing firm Zeuz, American developer Midwinter Entertainment and the UK games company The Multiplayer Guys. The latter two firms would later be sold in line with Improbable's venture building programme.
2020–present
Improbable sold its majority stake in Inflexion Games to Tencent in February 2022.
In April 2022 Improbable announced MSquared, a separate entity set up to develop a network of interoperable Web3 metaverses based on the company's Project Morpheus technology. MSquared was announced in a $150m funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. Additional backers included crypto-native investors such as Digital Currency Group, Ethereal Ventures and CMT.
Improbable has partnered with Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, on the development of Otherside, a gamified metaverse where users can transform their NFTs into portable characters and assets. Improbable's software powered Otherside's First Trip and Second Trip demos, bringing together crowds of 4500 and 7200 community members respectively.
In October 2022, the company began closing a £100m funding round led by the blockchain company Elrond and valuing Improbable at over $3bn. The Financial Times reported that Improbable expected to reach operating profitability in 2023, following a tripling of revenue to more than $100m in 2022.
In July 2024, Improbable announced financial results for the 2023 fiscal year, reporting a profit of £11 million on revenues of £66 million. The firm reiterated plans to incubate and develop companies for strategic exits. As of 2024, Improbable had investments in seven companies and had divested from its defence business and The Multiplayer Group (MPG), which it sold for £76.5 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Improbable (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5