British virtual reality (VR) specialist nDreams has been rapidly expanding its business of late, announcing two new studios; nDreams Studio Elevation and Studio Orbital. To continue that pace, today, nDreams has revealed a new $35 million USD investment from the Aonic Group.
nDreams will be using the investment to produce more in-house VR titles, a catalogue that includes the recent Fracked and 2020’s Phantom: Covert Ops. It’ll also expand those internal studios as well its publishing operation that’ll publish indie team Purple Yonder’s Little Cities this year.
“This investment is a pivotal moment for nDreams, and I’m delighted to have the support of Aonic, who share the same ambitious vision for the company that we do,” says Patrick O’Luanaigh, co-founder and CEO, nDreams in a statement. “As VR continues its trajectory towards becoming a truly mass-market technology, this is the rocket fuel needed to accelerate our rapid growth and take advantage of the many opportunities that continue to come our way.”
“The nDreams team continue to impress with how far they are pushing VR,” says Paul Schempp from Aonic. “Seeing their plans and visions for the future blew us away, and we are excited to join them on their incredible journey.” Aonic Group joins founding investor, Mercia Asset Management, as minority investors in nDreams.
In addition to developing its own VR videogames, the two new internal studios and the publishing arm, nDreams also set up an academy in 2021; designed to provide a talent pipeline for those currently learning about game development who are looking for employment opportunities.
Currently consisting of 130 people with plans to grow to 175 by the end of 2022, nDreams says it has “its strongest line-up of future projects already in development” which includes titles for PlayStation VR2. When details of those arrive gmw3 will let you know.