Unity IPO and early investment

I understand Unity already has a sky-high pre-IPO valuation, but is it possible for individuals to somehow invest in the company at this stage?

I'm fully expecting this thread to be closed or locked, but there is no other place in the forums for this.

Does Unity expect to go public? Any users have thoughts?

 

Are you exceptionally wealthy? Because the answer is the same.

 

Let's say I am. The question remains. Also, what about the rest of the post?

 

Then yes, you could probably approach them as a venture capitalist of some variety.

There is no news about this.

It's only good if you're an investor, not a user.

 

Yes I'm sure it is possible.

Though I'm certain the owners of Unity will only consider those who are well funded and experienced in this kind of investment. The fact you're asking this question on a public forum says you lack at least one of those.

 

< puts ten bucks on the table. I'm ready.

 

According to Crunchbase, Unity Technologies has raised $1.3 Billion in funding over 8 rounds of funding. I don't know how reliable Crunchbase is but that should give you an idea of how "exceptionally wealthy" you would need to be.

 

*throws a queen-high straight flush on the table, half of them are coming from the sleeve*

Oh, this is not that game? Sorry.

 

Well that gives clues about possible total valuation and how rich you'd need to be to buy the whole thing outright. In practice I assume that to have got in on these investment rounds in the past, you just need enough wealth to be able to access/join in with the sort of investment vehicles that participated in those funding rounds.
I dont know much about that world, but I would assume that if an IPO is planned, there wont be further investment rounds before then, so there is no opportunity to get in on the action. But maybe you could get in on the action indirectly, by investing in one of the entities that already invested in Unity.

 

I would think it would be beneficial for most people to wait till its offered publicly anyway. Less hurdles ie much lower barrier to entry, much more information about revenue and operations. And the opportunity to wait and see how markets view this sort of business and whether they think its initial share price was under or overvalued, whether the initial offering was oversubscribed.

 

Basically the only way you are getting in right now is as a multi million dollar venture capitalist.

If the company goes to IPO any smuck with the price of a share can get in. (This is still a big if, there has been no official hints that an IPO is planned, ever. Many companies stay privately owned. And there is a good argument that a relatively niche company like Unity should stay private.)

 

Cool. Well, I can't but I know some people who could Thing is, I'm excited for them to IPO. I think it will be a great stock to buy when it's public. Thanks for not flaming me (that's what I was expecting)

 

I really, really dont want the engines development and direction of the company to be dictated by individuals who likely have no experience using the engine and dont really relate to the actual users (I am talking about the investors it would bring in who would have some degree of control).

I am not saying that will 100% happen if it goes IPO but it is my worry.

 

I agree. Unity overall has been on a good track, they have done well with expanding the community through free offerings and been very fair with license pricing. I would expect a lot more pressure put on free users to monetize them if they went public, due to needing to constantly show quarter over quarter growth.

As a private company it is a lot easier for them to keep from short term cash grabs in favor of long term growth and goodwill.

 

You can invest $20K or more through secondary offering sites such as EquityZen which just closed a deal.

 

Oh, is that all?

 

Free users are already monetized via the Asset Store and Learn (which is increasingly gamified and monetized these days).

 

That's like... tin foil hat level of BS.

You're paying actual developers of assets, not UT itself.
Small percentage excluded, but then again, every online distribution store takes % of sales.

Learn - its just courses. Premium ones are on the same level as Udemy (I think?, might be cheaper, haven't checked that)

Soooo yeah.

 

If I only could have invested in Unity in 2005 when I first started using it, I’d be set for life.

 

Bitcoin in that case might've been a better alternative.

 

...so what you're saying is that they're monetized.

 

Nobody requires payment for the rest of the learning tutorials, which is more than 90%.

If you want professional courses, you have to pay for them. That's just how life works.

About store percentage - its not even Steam greed level.

 

I would argue that Unity probably makes more money from some Personal users than from the average Pro user. Unity makes money from Personal users in a variety of ways, that's monetization. If it's reasonable or not is besides the point, so I don't understand what you're arguing.

Next you'll tell me that free 2 play games on mobiles are really free and not monetized, because you are not forced to pay to remove ads or buy a health potion.

 

I've never purchased a single course from Learn section.
I did however purchased from AS. Does that makes me a personal user?

Asset Store is a separate market. Sure, it provides some income, but I doubt it surpasses license sells. So yeah, agreed.

But both of the above not mandatory in any kind of way.
Free to play mobile games monetizations are magnitudes away from Unity.

Are you just salty because Unreal fails to provide anything alike Asset Store?

 

The thing that makes you a "Personal" user is whether or not you're using a Personal license.

Cool?

I am salty because I am trying to have a discussion on the Unity forums and you're borderline trolling me.

Why are you salty?

 

Trolling a troll.

What a time to be unbanned. Its a general discussion, and a zero worth of a value thread that should've been closed.
What did you expect?

Anyways, I'll stop.

If you still think Unity does something wrong in terms of what it does, it might be worth making a separate thread instead of hijacking it.

Because I like Unity and what it does. Maybe got a little bit triggered.

Compared to alternatives, Unity's godsend for indies like me.

 

No, I'm saying "monetization is not a four letter word." UE4 monetizes too, and most of that monetization is geared towards new users, who are most likely to be affected by these monetization techniques.

 

Please don't put words in my mouth.

 

I spent my $10 on Unity assets. Am I an investor now?

 

To be fair, all of us are invested in Unity. Just wanted to discuss this, glad it didn't get hateful!

 

Thought this might be of interest to you. I'd hate to see Unity go public, but I don't blame you for wanting to invest in it when it does, and it's definitely better than it being bought out by AutoDesk. https://www.thestreet.com/investing/5-tech-ipos-to-watch-for-in-2020

If you sincerely wanted to invest buy pre-IPO, you could do so through forgeglobal.com here: https://forgeglobal.com/company/unity-technologies (this is not advice... just passing along info).