Funding round, led by RedBird Capital Partners, will support Build A Rocket Boy’s commercialisation as it launches its immersive gaming platform EVERYWHERE and AAA game MindsEye.
Build A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh-headquartered games studio founded by Leslie Benzies, has secured over $110 million in a series D funding round.
The new capital will enable Build A Rocket Boy to launch its three flagship products: immersive gaming and entertainment open world platform EVERYWHERE, AAA game series MindsEye, and suite of easy-to-use UGC design tools the company is calling ARCADIA. Build A Rocket Boy has gone on record to say that the highly anticipated EVERYWHERE and the first episode of MindsEye will be launched ‘in the near future’.
While few details have been released about MindsEye, the studio has released a few more details alongside the funding announcement. According to BARB, MindsEye is a “highly anticipated AAA, story-driven game set at a critical moment in humankind’s development, exploring key societal issues around increasing inequality, the explosion of artificial intelligence, the rise of military robots and the impending climate crisis”.
EVERYWHERE, which had a closed Alpha release at the end of 2023, is a multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world. It is a world of endless possibilities, where anyone can be someone and life has no boundaries. It’s a player-first platform with multi and single-player gaming experiences and best-in-class UGC tools set to reimagine the video game creator economy.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, with two offices in Leith, Build A Rocket Boy also has a presence in Budapest, Hungary and Montpelier, France, with over 300 staff across the company.
The most recent funding round was led by RedBird Capital Partners, a private investment firm with an extensive track record investing in the media & entertainment, sports and experiential consumer ecosystems. Julia Wittlin, a partner at RedBird Capital, will join the Build A Rocket Boy’s board. The financing round also had strong support from existing and new investors, including Galaxy Interactive, NetEase Games, Endeavor, Alignment Growth, Woodline Partners LP, GTAM Partners, and others.
Leslie Benzies, founder and chairman of Build a Rocket Boy, said:
We are excited to partner with RedBird and our other investors to help us launch EVERYWHERE, MindsEye, and what we believe will be game-changing UGC design tools in ARCADIA. RedBird’s expertise in building successful entertainment and media platforms will be invaluable and makes them a perfect partner. I started Build A Rocket Boy so that I could continue to share the stories I love with players and give them a place to create and share. We believe in a future where game creation is put in the hands of the players, and we will empower them with the tools to help shape this vision with us.
Julia Wittlin, Partner at RedBird Capital, added:
We are pleased to partner with and support exceptional talent like Leslie and the Build A Rocket Boy team as they build the next genre-defining game studio and entertainment platform. RedBird’s investment portfolio in media, entertainment, sports and experiential consumer enables a differentiated perspective on the gaming industry and its convergence with other forms of interactive entertainment.