Tech City firm Bossa wins super-game backing

A Shoreditch video games developer has received $10 million (£7.5 million) in backing as it prepares to launch what has been described as Britain’s answer to Minecraft.

The bulk of the funding for Bossa Studios came from venture capital firm Atomico, with existing investors, including London Venture Partners, a video games funder, also putting in more money.

Bossa, which won a Bafta in 2012 for its Monstermind game, is preparing to launch Worlds Adrift, an online multiplayer game where players roam a virtual world.

It is the first-ever game to be built on SpatialOS, the artificial intelligence platform of Cambridge unicorn Improbable, which raised $500 million from Japan’s SoftBank earlier this year.

Bossa’s co-founder and chief executive Henrique Olifiers said: “There has never been a more exciting time to create games thanks to emerging technologies and platforms, and Bossa intends to be at the very heart of the action.”

The company was sold to Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine in 2011, but bought back by management when it merged with Big Brother-maker Endemol.