Bordeaux, January 28th, 2021 – Sagard NewGen acquired a minority stake in Asobo Studio from its 12 founders
Founded in 2002, Asobo Studio is a leading PC and console video games development studio. Internationally renowned, Asobo Studio has worked together with major industry players (Microsoft, Disney/Pixar, Ubisoft, Focus Home Interactive, …) and has developed or co-developed 24 games, including key entertainment franchises as well as original creations.
Released in August 2020, the latest entry in Flight Simulator series sets a milestone in Asobo Studio’s journey. It strengthens the already established partnership with Microsoft and marks the beginning of the studio’s long-term commitment with the mythical franchise. With a 91/100 Metacritic score and more than 2 million unique users to date, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is a technical breakthrough and won best Sim/Strategy Game at the Game Awards 2020.
Leveraging its technical and creative teams talent, Asobo Studio unveiled « A Plague Tale: Innocence » in 2019, an original creation produced in partnership with publisher Focus Home Interactive. Internationally acclaimed by both the press and players, the game is praised for its artistic direction, gameplay experience and narrative design. It was celebrated by many awards, including the Outstanding Story-Rich Game Steam Award and six Pegases awards in 2019.
Based in Bordeaux, France, Asobo Studio currently employs 220 people.
The deal consists in Sagard NewGen acquiring a minority stake in Asobo Studio and allows to associate more employees with the capital of the company. With Sagard NewGen aboard, Asobo Studio gains a strong ally to support its growth, while preserving its strategic and creative autonomy.
Sagard NewGen fund was launched in 2020 and this is its second operation so far.
Sebastian Wloch, Chief Executive Officer, David Dedeine, Chief Creative Officer, and Grégory Carreau Chief Operating Officer (Asobo Studio) declare: “The Sagard NewGen team has been really enthusiastic, professional and flexible. Their ability to understand the specifics of our industry and to embrace the studio DNA definitely convinced us. We’re proud to be supported by such a renowned firm, and we are confident this will be a fruitful and virtuous partnership”.
Bérangère Barbe / Agnès Huyghues Despointes / Guillaume Lefebvre (Sagard NewGen) declare “We were won over by what Asobo Studio has built over the last 18 years. We are impressed by the studio tech and creative know-how and potential. We are fully aligned with Asobo Studio business-model, which smartly balances working for first class industry players and creating original titles. This operation, which allows to incentivize a larger part of the studio staff to the company equity, perfectly fits with Sagard NewGen strategy and we are proud to have the opportunity to support Asobo Studio in the next steps of its development!”
About Sagard NewGen
Sagard NewGen aims to support the development of leaders in the healthcare and technology sectors. The fund was established to make majority and minority investments of between €10 million and €50 million to finance the expansion strategy of European profitable companies sharing the same commitment to innovation and sustainability (revenues of up to €150 million).
Sponsored by Sagard Holdings and supported by Sienna Capital, Sagard NewGen extends the platform’s European base alongside Sagard MidCap. Sagard NewGen provides management teams with bespoke support, a high value-added ecosystem with truly international reach via its offices in Paris, Montréal, Toronto and New York.
For more information, go to: www.sagard.com
About Asobo Studio
Asobo Studio is a French video game development company based in Bordeaux, France, founded in 2002.
The studio has developed 24 video games so far for both consoles and PC - among which the critically acclaimed Microsoft Flight Simulator (released in August 2020 – 91% Metacritic), multi award winning A plague tale: Innocence (May 2019 - more than 1M copies sold worldwide to date).
Asobo Studio has partnered with some of the most prestigious worldwide publishers such as Disney•Pixar, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Focus Home Interactive… and employs about 220 full-time developers.
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