Exclusive: Unity to let workers sell shares via secondary offering

Unity Technologies, the privately held San Francisco company best known for its 3D gaming engine, plans to allow employees and some early investors to sell shares in a secondary stock offering.

Why it matters: The move gives employees more liquidity and concentrates ownership of company shares.

Unity plans to announce the offering shortly in a meeting with its workers.

Details:

• Former workers with vested shares as well as some early-stage investors will also be able to sell shares in the offering, valued at up to $525 million. New investors buying the shares are D1 Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Silver Lake Partners.
• Common shares will be valued at $20 apiece, the same as the valuation in the Series E round the company closed in May.
• Eligible stockholders will have until Aug. 22 to decide whether to sell shares.

In an interview, Unity CFO Kim Jabal said the goal was to show its appreciation for workers.

"The primary objective was to provide liquidity to employees," said Jabal, who joined Unity in February. "We don’t have tremendous capital needs right now within the company."

That said, the company still has its eye on an eventual IPO. "It’s definitely something we think about and that we probably will do at some point," Jabal said.

And while the current business doesn't require more capital, Jabal said the company is expanding into areas like automotive, architecture and film, and the growth could open the door for acquisitions. "We believe we are on the brink of 3D being in every industry," Jabal said.