The Walking Dead creators Skybound Entertainment are raising funds for expansion

Skybound Entertainment, creators of the Robert Kirkman-built The Walking Dead franchise, has announced a new round of funding.

The amount was not disclosed. Knollwood Advisory led the round, with participation from Hiro Capital, Boost VC, and subsequent participation from Com2uS and Skydance Entertainment. Skybound Entertainment is home to acclaimed franchises like The Walking Dead, Invincible and Impact Winter.

“There is nothing stronger than storytelling, and I am delighted that Hiro has been able to invest in Skybound Entertainment, creators and curators of the most compelling omniverses. As someone who has killed countless zombies in tabletop and video games over the years, I feel like Robert and I are kindred spirits,” Hiro Capital co-founder Ian Livingstone said in a statement.

Livingstone, recently knighted, is one of the founding fathers of the UK games. He co-founded Games Workshop in 1975 and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe. He created the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in 1982, which have sold more than 17 million copies to date. He also played a pivotal role in Eidos and the creation of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Skybound brings creators together across its diverse business, including comics, interactive games, audio, film and television (traditional and digital platforms), licensing and merchandising. Skybound has successfully franchised some of its greatest intellectual property rights, connecting creators and their content to new platforms and audiences.

Skybound is responsible for turning Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book series into a multi-billion dollar franchise through a television adaptation, numerous video games and merchandise, and novels. Kirkman’s Invincible comic book series is in production for Seasons 2 and 3 through an exclusive partnership with Amazon Prime, following a critically acclaimed and successful debut of Season 1.

“We are delighted to welcome Hiro to the family and welcome Ian to the board. This investment will help us accelerate the development of existing hit franchises as well as new content for our fanbase around the world,” Skybound CEO David Alpert said in a statement on behalf of Chairman Robert Kirkman and business partner Jon Goldman.

Founded in 2010, Skybound is a multi-platform content company that works closely with creators and their intellectual property, expanding their stories to more platforms including comics, television, film, tabletop and video games, books, digital content, events and more. The company is home to critically acclaimed global franchises such as The Walking Dead, Invincible and Superfight.

Skybound Games’ capabilities include the publishing, production and global distribution of tabletop and video games of all genres, including the multi-million selling video game series The Walking Dead. Skybound Games is also a strategic global marketing and distribution partner of Striking Distance Studios for the highly anticipated survival horror game The Callisto Protocol.

The company will use the capital to expand and accelerate internal development of new TV shows, video games, comics and podcasts, Alpert told GamesBeat in an email.

Regarding the Metaverse, Alpert said the company has taken steps to engage fans in a meta experience featuring The Walking Dead. Last year, the company announced a partnership with The Sandbox to bring The Walking Dead comics to life in the open gaming metaverse, which was a huge hit.

Skybound also partnered with Skydance Interactive to immerse themselves in virtual reality with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, a VR game that brought The Walking Dead to VR gamers. And now it’s working on The Walking Dead: Last Mile, a Massively Interactive Live Event (MILE) experience being developed alongside partners Genvid and Pipeworks.

“This is our latest effort to immerse fans in a living, breathing world set in The Walking Dead universe to collaborate with other fans (or against…your choice) and make decisions that affect whether characters appear in the survive or die in the Alaskan wilderness. ‘ Kirkman said in an email to GamesBeat. “The world we create in Last Mile is tough. Whether it’s the harsh Alaskan winter, zombie hordes, or other characters you’ve betrayed, anything can kill you.”

Skybound has also introduced new properties like Invincible and the Impact Winter podcast.

“Our magic is the depth of developer talent and content we have available to build upon,” said Alpert.

The company employs 108 full and part-time employees. And it’s building a 200-person animation studio in Burbank in a project led by Marge Dean. Each of the TV shows is cast separately and the company employs
Hundreds of writers and artists across comics and physical merchandise.

Beyond The Walking Dead TV shows, the company sees itself as a full-fledged media content company. The video game publishing group has evolved and grown exponentially and will continue to bring new and exciting projects to fans, Goldman said in an email to GamesBeat. The company invests across all of its businesses and continues to grow its pool of creative talent while nurturing new projects across all of its businesses, including comics, audio and digital programming, TV/film production, animation and more.

“The real juice in our business is discovering new developers, helping them promote specific IPs, and then connecting directly with the fanbase,” Goldman told GamesBeat in an email. “The commercialization that is happening through
TV shows or video games are what everyone sees, but actually it’s step 2. We hope to do a lot more step 1s where we bring more zombies, superheroes, vampires and the like to our fans around the world.”