Spire Animation Studios announced it has raised $20 million in a funding round. According to the company, the funding will go towards expanding the team, supporting the development of the studio's technology, and bolstering future creative development related to metaverse content.
The funding round includes a strategic investment from Epic Games. Along with Epic, Connect Ventures – the investor that had already backed up the studio previously – took part in the round. Epic Games and Spire will partner closely to integrate Unreal Engine into Spire's animation pipeline. As a part of the deal, Epic will also join the board of directors at Spire.
Spire CEO and co-founder P.J. Gunsagar shared: “The great thing about this partnership is we’ve got parallel interests in the end tool development with Epic,” Lewis said. “We are committed to it in the long term.”
Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri also added: "The talented team at Spire has decades of experience and their work has captivated audiences around the world with heartfelt storytelling and inspiring characters. They are at the cutting edge of animation and together we will push the state of the art in metaverse entertainment."
The partnership indicates a substantial shift in the future of feature animation. According to Gunsagar, the goal of the company is "to make a movie-going experience" while not making the main focus on creating highly realistic imagery. He added: “That’s what is really interesting for Epic as well, to demonstrate this caricature style of animation is the goal.”
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