On Wednesday, digital entertainment platform Roblox announced that it raised $520 million in its Series H funding round. The company priced each share at $45, which values the company at $29.5 billion — or approximately 2.95 trillion Robux.
Roblox has created a massive online platform that is part video game, part social network. People log into the Roblox universe in order to chat with friends, design virtual worlds, play mini games and participate in countless other online experiences with people from across the world.
Billions of people have created a Roblox account, and over 31 million people on average use the platform every day. The Roblox universe is especially popular with school-age children, with 54 percent of players under the age of 13, according to its recent S-1 filing.
This huge community is what keeps players coming back and also makes the company so valuable. The game is free to play, but gives users the option of buying Robux, its in-game currency.
This model earned Roblox $588.7 million in revenue from the beginning of January of 2020 to the end of September. That’s a 68 percent increase in revenue when compared to the same nine-month period in 2019. Roblox filed to be listed as a public company in November.
Roblox says that it will use its Series H funding to invest in further growth initiatives and to capitalize on the momentum it’s been experiencing.
The funding round was led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Altimeter, Dragoneer and the other new investors,” Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki said in a statement. “We look forward to working with all of them as we continue our mission to build a human co-experience platform that enables shared experience, from play to work, and learning among billions of users.”
