Spire Animation Studios Closes $20M Funding Round With Strategic Investment By Epic Games

deadline.com:

Spire Animation Studios has closed a $20 million funding round that includes a strategic investment from Epic Games. It said the fresh funds are earmarked for staff expansion, studio technology and infrastructure build out and creative development.

Epic will also join Spire’s board of directors.The collaboration will see Epic’s Unreal Engine, an advanced real-time 3D creation tool, integrated with Spire’s feature animation pipeline.

That will “enable Spire to produce the highest quality animated visual content with stronger collaboration and higher efficiency while simultaneously building out worlds and experiences for the metaverse,” the announcement said.

The first project is Spire’s animated feature, , in collaboration with Danny McBride’s Rough House Pictures. That’s currently in development, along with another project called Century Goddess.Epic is joining Spire alongside existing investor Connect Ventures, an investment partnership formed by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).Spire Animation Studios was co-founded by Brad Lewis, producer of Ratatouille, and entrepreneur P.J.