Kepler Interactive has raised $120 million from Chines gaming giant NetEase.
Formed from seven independent companies – most significantly funding outfit Kowloon Knights – Kepler is run and co-owned by its developers and founders.
Kepler’s CEO Alexis Garavaryan (ex Ubisoft, Tencent and Microsoft) is also CEO of Kowloon Knights, which had previous relationships with some of the developers involved such as Canadian developer Alpha Channel and Paris outfit Sloclap,
Whilst Kepler currently focuses on PC and console gaming, it is looking to expand into mobile games.
It’s also in talks with animation studios over the potential to adapt some of intellectual properties into series.
Funding for expansion
According to Reuters, Garavaryan has said that there are ‘conversations about expansion’ and while he didn’t disclose the company’s valuation, he did say that NatEase would be ‘a minority investor’.
The seven game companies operate as a studio committee, meeting weekly to discuss major company decisions.
The studios themselves remain independent when it comes to making their own studio-level decisions.
There are plans for Kepler to have operational hubs in both Singapore and London.
You can find out more via the Kepler website.
