Frontier Developments going public with $5.9M in shares

David Braben's Frontier Developments will be going public on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market on July 15th, with £4 million ($5.9 million U.S.) in ordinary shares, at a market cap of £39.4 million ($58.8 million U.S.). The move is interesting to the extent that Braben's company has sought alternative funding in the past, raising £1.6 million through Kickstarter for its upcoming title Elite: Dangerous, a successor to the Elite franchise of open-world space sims on which Braben has made his career. Frontier has also sought additional private funding, in June bringing in £2.8 million for a total of £7.2 million in cash reserves. "We are very excited to be listing our company at a time of such strong momentum in the business and the sector," said Braben in conjunction with the IPO announcement. "This placing of Frontier shares, combined with our recent oversubscribed funding round, is a strong endorsement both of the opportunities we have identified, and our team's ability to deliver on the next round of enhancements to our business to make the most of those opportunities. It gives us the necessary financial impetus to continue operating at the forefront of the continually evolving and expanding global games market."