Mercia is pleased to announce that nDreams Limited has acquired Brighton-based Near Light Limited.
Founded in 2016, Near Light is a long-term partner of nDreams and a virtual reality (“VR”) and augmented reality (“AR”) game development studio. Near Light developed the nDreams-published Perfect and Shooty Fruity VR titles, in addition to recently pioneering an AR experience for one of the world’s leading toy brands.
nDreams is currently the Group’s largest direct investment by fair value, and continues to see strong growth, with revenue for its current financial year on track to grow by c.70 per cent. Near Light is nDreams’ first acquisition as it seeks to accelerate its ability to scale the delivery of top-class games to meet a rapidly growing demand.
Following the £20.0million investment from Aonic AB in March 2022, nDreams has significantly grown its workforce and capabilities, expanding its headcount from c.100 at the beginning of 2021, to over 180 currently. With the acquisition of Near Light, nDreams will have c.200 team members, 150 of whom are developers, working across four studios on a number of projects, including the recently announced Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and Meta, that launches in 2023. Near Light is currently developing an unannounced VR title to be published by nDreams.
Julian Viggars, CIO of Mercia Asset Management and nDreams’ Board Director, said: “2022 has been a significant year for nDreams as it continues to firmly establish itself as one of the world’s leading VR studios. The acquisition of Near Light is another positive development as it looks to scale its world class development capability to meet a rapidly growing order book. We remain hugely excited by the potential of the VR market, particularly as nDreams has partnerships with the key VR headset providers.”