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Atom Universe

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Facebook meets The Sims: create your avatar, make friends, chat and play games in a vast 3D universe!

105%
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Funded 2 Aug 2021
£100,002 target
£105,552 from 242 investors
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Business overview

Location Woking, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.atomuniverse.net
Sectors Games Digital B2C
Company number 09337155
Incorporation date 2 Dec 2014
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £3.9M
Equity offered 2.62%
Tax relief

EIS

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Business highlights

  • £370k raised: Kickstarter success followed by further investment
  • Over 2m downloads on PlayStation and PC
  • Strong KPIs: 20,000 MAU, ARPU: 32p /month, ARPPU: £5.50
  • Revenue-generating since 2016
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Nominee investment min. £11.10 +
  • Direct investment min. £20,000.00 +

Idea

Introduction

Atom Universe is an established virtual world, available on PC & console. Imagine a cross between Facebook and The Sims: players create their avatars, then go and explore a vast 3D universe, meet like-minded individuals from all over the world, chat and play.

The game has over 2 million downloads, and an average of 20,000 unique players every month*. Revenue from in-game purchases added up to over £500k since our launch in 2016. The business has a proven freemium customer acquisition model, which has delivered organic growth.

We are pioneering virtual shared experiences for additional sources of revenue: virtual concerts, e-sports, cinema, museum...

Atom Universe is now planning to add mobile to its platforms, to capitalise on the fast-growing global market. With the move to mobile, we will allow gaming on the go, which suits the pace of our social app better than console & PC. Advertising & product placement is not authorised on console, so moving to mobile will also unlock this new potential source of revenue.

*Based on average monthly users since 2018.

Substantial accomplishments to date

·2015: successful Kickstarter campaign; £25k funded

·2016 to 2018: £250k investments from Business Angels

·2020-2021: £20k grant from Woking Borough Council

·Launched in 2016 on PC and PlayStation

·Revenue generating since 2016

·Over 2m downloads

·20,000 Average Monthly Users*

·Proven business model with the monetisation of virtual items and virtual events

·Scalability: we can scale the back-end infinitely to meet the demand, if more users want to connect, new instances of our servers are automatically created.

·Strong KPIs: ARPU 32p/month, ARPPU £5.50/month

·Integrating SONY technology to enable face-scanning avatar creation

·Running virtual art gallery event showcasing some of Banksy's digital artworks, with plans to sell some of the art digitally

·Organised multiple virtual concerts with record label Spinnin' Record

·Partnership with Crash Media for access to over 100 Kung-fu movies to play in our Kung Fu Theatre

·Partnership with Valiant Comics to open our comics store; selling digital comics and superheroes costumes

·Plans to run an NBA 2K eSports event - with virtual rap battle lined up

·Pioneering virtual concerts since 2017

*Based on average monthly users since 2018.

Monetisation strategy

Atom Universe has a proven freemium business model. It is free to play, with 4 sources of income:

1- Virtual items sold in-game (clothes, vehicles, pets, spaces etc...) generate direct revenue.

2- An optional subscription, giving players access to exclusive content and VIP spaces, generates regular revenue.

3- Advertising and product placement is an enormous potential source of revenue: untapped so far on console as it is strictly regulated. We believe it will be very easy to implement on mobile, and will generate a lot of extra income later this year.

4- Atom Universe is a platform, not a game: 20+ developers are creating content sold on Atom Universe: we encourage 3rd party developers to create content, so we can focus on building and growing the platform.
This allows us to scale rapidly, externally: the third-party developers shoulder the development risk.

5- On top of virtual goods, we are creating new sources of income including; virtual concerts, cinemas, e-sports events, comic shops, museums, digital art galleries...

Use of proceeds

·60%: Development of the mobile version. We have developed a prototype, and we are currently working on improving the user experience on Android. We plan to release the IOS version soon after the Android one.

·30%: Growing the team. Human resources are the most valuable asset of a company. We need to have our CEO full time and attract and retain top talents in marketing, business development, software development, content creators.

·10%: Marketing. We want to engage with our community, work with influencers, and run regular PR campaigns to boost brand awareness:

- Clear focus on user acquisition
- New target segments have been identified
- Product has been re-positioned based on new targets & competitor analysis
- At full launch the comms mix will focus on niche social channels, games console specialist, lifestyle mags & TV (OL)
- We will use a blend of PR, advertorial and ads for maximum impact in target segments
- Creative & content will be tuned to segment preferences

Key Information

Material Debt:

The company has the following outstanding loans:

1. £34,988 Bounce Back Loan from HSBC entered into in June 2020. There is an interest rate of 2.5% per annum, with no repayments for the first 12 months. The loan is to be repaid by June 2026.

The funds raised from this investment round will not be used to repay these loans.

Founders Interests:

The management team of the business are currently part-time.

Brian Fitzpatrick (CRO), Salvatore D’Urso (CFO) and Al King (CMO) currently dedicate 1 day per week to the business. Tanguy Dewavrin (CEO) currently spends 1 day per week on the business, but will go full-time following this raise. Their other commitments alongside the business are as follows:

- Tanguy Dewavrin: Part-time Lead Artist at Absolutely Games.

- Salvatore D’Urso: Director and consultant at SDK International. Currently a Finance Manager at Spin Master until contract terminates in June.

- Brian Fitzpatrick: Board Member, Investor & Advisor to several tech companies (Including Say It Now, Provenance, TabMo, Fiducia DLT & Connected).

- Al King: Part-time consultant for Sine Wave Entertainment, focussing on marketing and business development with expertise in virtual worlds.

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If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

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If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

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Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £3,903,870

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Secondary market

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Direct investment

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Business Involvement

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Drawdowns

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