By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Unity is one of the top software companies in the world. In the SEC filing for an IPO, the company estimated that more than half of the top mobile games on the Apple App Store and Google’s Play Store in 2019 were built with Unity.
On Monday, Unity Software filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with plans to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Reporting nearly 40% increase in revenue for 2020, the company’s sales also hit $500 million in the previous year. The lead underwriters on the share table are Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
The San Francisco-based company filed for its IPO at a time when a top competitor is struggling with a court case. Reports show that one of Unity’s competitors, Epic Games, is presently in a legal battle with Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL). According to a CNBC report, this may affect Epic Games negatively and bring a positive effect on Unity as it goes public.
Unity Software Files for IPO
Unity is one of the top software companies in the world. In the SEC filing, the company estimated that more than half of the top mobile games on the Apple App Store and Google’s Play Store in 2019 were built with Unity. Referring to the ticker symbol, the company also added:
“…we have applied to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, under the symbol “U.”
Apart from the two lead underwriters, others include BofA Securities, Barclays, William Blair, Oppenheimer & Co., Piper Sandler, Stifel, Wedbush Securities, Academy Securities, and Siebert William Shank.
Some More Details on Unity Software
Founded in 2004, Unity has 3,379 employees as of the 30th of June. In the first half of this year, revenue was up 39% to $351.3 million. In the previous year, the company reported a net loss of $163.2 million on revenue of $541.8 million.
Furthermore, Unity’s SEC filing showed that as of the end of June, the platform has 1.5 million monthly active creators. Also, the company boasts that 53% of all mobile and console games last year, were on Unity. In addition, the company had over 3 billion app downloads per month in 2019 on more than 1.5 billion devices.
In the first half of 2020, records show that over 15,000 new daily projects were on the Unity platform. Also, at the end of June 2020, more than 190 countries and territories in the world have Unity creators.
Speaking on the function of the Unity Software, the company said:
“Unity is the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D content… Our platform provides a comprehensive set of software solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, 2D and 3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, and Consoles, and augmented and virtual reality devices.”
Unity games can be built and operated on over 20 platforms including Windows, iOS, Mac, Android, Xbox, among others.
Unity and Its Investors
As Unity plans to go public, TechCrunch revealed that Sequoia who owns 24.1% of the company will be a huge winner. Another major venture capital investor, Silver Lake, also owns 18.2% of Unity. In 2017, Silver Lake invested almost $400 million in Unity Software.
Some of the executives of Unity Software also own parts of the company. The founder David Helgason owns 4.4% and CEO John Riccitiello owns 3.4% of the company.