PlayCanvas
Cloud-hosted, collaborative platform for building video games.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor investor | €0.0 | round |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | N/A | Acquisition | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
| GBP | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenues | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % growth | 104 % | (24 %) | 23 % | 276 % | (61 %) | 14 % | 121 % |
| EBITDA | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % EBITDA margin | 35 % | 2448 % | 3 % | 6 % | 2 % | (50 %) | - |
| Profit | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| % profit margin | 47 % | 2477 % | 28 % | 4 % | 10 % | (24 %) | 20 % |
| EV | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
| EV / revenue | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x |
| EV / EBITDA | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x | 00.0x |
| R&D budget | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 | 0000 |
Source: Company filings or news article
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PlayCanvas operates a cloud-hosted development platform and an open-source 3D engine for creating interactive, graphics-rich applications. Founded in 2011 by Will Eastcott and David Evans, the company aimed to make game development more collaborative and accessible. Both founders brought extensive experience from the AAA games industry, having worked at companies like Sony, EA, and Activision on major franchises. Their journey began with the insight that WebGL would usher in a new era for the 3D web, prompting them to build a platform specifically for this new frontier, even without prior JavaScript or web development experience.
The company's business model centers on a freemium structure for its proprietary cloud-hosted creation platform. It offers a free tier for public projects, with paid subscription plans for individuals and organizations that require private projects, more storage, and team management features. PlayCanvas targets game developers, digital agencies, and companies in sectors like automotive, who use the platform for creating everything from web games and playable ads to product configurators and architectural visualizations. Notable clients have included Disney, King, Nickelodeon, and Polaris.
The core product is a browser-based platform that combines a powerful 3D game engine with a real-time collaborative editor, often likened to Google Docs for game development. This allows multiple users to edit scenes simultaneously from different computers. The engine, which was open-sourced in June 2014, is built on web standards like WebGL, WebGPU, and glTF, ensuring it runs on any modern browser without plugins. Key features include a physics engine, 3D audio, an advanced animation system, and support for various inputs like mouse, keyboard, touch, and VR controllers. Its architecture is lightweight and optimized for fast loading times, which is critical for web-based content. A significant milestone was its acquisition by Snap Inc. in 2017, which integrated PlayCanvas technology to help build the Snap Games platform, exposing it to millions of users.
Keywords: 3D game engine, WebGL, HTML5 game development, interactive 3D applications, cloud-hosted platform, collaborative editor, open-source engine, real-time collaboration, web games, playable ads, product visualization, augmented reality, virtual reality, Snap Inc., Will Eastcott, David Evans, browser-based games, JavaScript game engine, WebGPU, 3D graphics, game development tools