Technology

Posted on May 23, 2018 by staff

Games label Team17 raises £108m following float

Technology

UK video game label Team17 raised £107.5 million with its flotation on the stock exchange.

The company, which was many times oversubscribed, is now valued at around £217m following the opening day of trading.

Team17 is the company behind hit franchise Worms and develops its own IP as well as entering into revenue share agreements to publish the games made by indie developers.

Founded in 1990 and based in Wakefield, it has flourished in the unpredictable world of games development and released more than 70 games to date.

“We are delighted to have received such strong support from investors,” said founder and CEO Debbie Bestwick MBE.

“Our listing on AIM represents a major endorsement of both our business and our people and we believe that our quoted status provides an ideal platform from which to accelerate our growth ambitions.

“We have established a truly exceptional team and our vast expertise within the gaming sector has enabled us to create a market-leading offering.

“We are excited by the benefits of being a quoted company and we look forward to further developing our business over the coming years.”

The firm’s 2017 revenues were £29.6m, more than double the £13.5m from the previous year.

Team17 said its senior management team has more than 140 years’ combined experience and strong relationships across Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Steam, Apple and Google.

It added that it focused on lifecycle management to ensure long term contribution from back catalogue of titles, with over 50 per cent of revenues in 2017 generated from existing titles.

Tongue-in-cheek multi-player strategy franchise Worms has been a huge hit since the mid-90s and features worms battling it out with weapons as bizarre as exploding sheep, holy hand grenades and banana bombs.

Team17’s more recent games include Overcooked and The Escapists while games lined up for 2018 include Yoku’s Island Express, Genesis Alpha One, Raging Justice, My Time at Portia, Planet Alpha, Forged Battalion and Mugsters.