Roblox online gaming platform, Today, 115 million Generation Z players are at home every month. It was announced today that $ 150 million in Series G funds had been raised, led by Andreessen Horowitz's Late Stage Venture Fund. The company will also launch a takeover offer for common and preferred stock worth up to $ 350 million.
The company previously offered liquidity through regular secondary offers to stakeholders and employees because it believes in its long-term potential. According to CFO Michael Guthrie, Roblox is also cash flow positive.
Further participants in the G series are the new investors Temasek and Tencent Holdings Limited as well as the existing investors Altos Ventures, Meritech Capital and Tiger Global Management.
Funding is in a phase of significant growth for the gaming platform. Just last summer, it was visited by 100 million users who led Minecraft, and its developer community of over 2 million activists earned $ 110 million in 2019 – up from around $ 70 million in 2018 and over $ 40 million in Year 2017.
Since then, Roblox has continued to invest in its developer business, introducing new tools for more realistic 3D experiences and a marketplace where developers can sell their own development resources and tools to others.
Roblox offers its developers a platform on which they can build, similar to the App Store. Many of the most popular games are free and are instead monetized when players use virtual money called Robux to spend on in-game items. Some of the largest games have an average of more than 10 million users per month. Over 10 games have seen more than 1 billion visits.
Roblox players often don't just focus on accomplishing a goal or task – they go online to hang out with friends in a gaming environment. Half of the weekly active users go to Roblox to play with friends. In addition, half of Roblox users update their avatar every month.
In recent months, Roblox has also been working to further expand its platform outside of the United States, particularly in China. Last year, Roblox entered into a strategic partnership with Tencent to bring its platform and coding curriculum to the region, including by supporting Chinese languages and conducting coding camps. Today Roblox has players and creators in over 200 countries.
According to comScore, Roblox was worth $ 2.5 billion last year, with approximately half of U.S. children ages 9 to 12 playing on its platform. This still applies today. In addition, the user base is generally younger with over 40% 13 and more.
The company is now valued at $ 4 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported. (theinformationsuperhighway also sees this as true. Roblox does not comment.)
According to Roblox, the user base spends a total of 1.5 billion hours a month using the service. And since it's cross-platform accessible, users often switch from PC to smartphone to continue playing – a newer trend in online gaming that also promotes acceptance of games like Fortnite, PUBG and others.
"We firmly believe in Roblox's long-term vision and are confident that we can help the team enter this next turning point," said David George, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, about the company's investment. "Roblox is one of those rare platform companies with massive traction and an organic, high-growth business model that will drive the company forward and drive the industry for many years," he added.
Roblox plans to use the new funds to continue its growth, including internationally. Further development of developer tools and the ecosystem; and invest in technical talent and infrastructure.
"We have remained true to our vision of creating a safe and civic place where people come together to create, learn and have fun. It is amazing to see what we have built together with our global creative community," said David Baszucki, CEO and co-founder of Roblox, in a statement. "Looking ahead, we're doubling our commitment to developing the most advanced tools and technologies to lead our developers and players into the metaverse of the future."
Updated on 2/6/20, 7:30 p.m. ET with more recent statistics.
