Games creation platform Roblox has raised $520 million in a new round of funding that values the company at a cool $29.5bn.

This was announced in a post on its website, with the news coming as the firm says it will be going public via a direct listing offering (DPO) rather than the more traditional initial public offering (IPO), something that was hinted at towards the end of last year.

This new $520 million Series H round was led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group, with Warner Music Group and Investment Group of Santa Barbara also taking part. This new $29.5bn valuation is seven times higher than the $4bn valuation that Roblox attracted in February 2020 when it completed its Series G funding round.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Altimeter, Dragoneer and the other new investors,” CEO David Baszucki (pictured) said.

“We look forward to working with all of them as we continue our mission to build a human co-experience platform that enables shared experience, from play to work, and learning among billions of users.”

News that Roblox planned to go public broke in October 2020 with the firm reportedly looking to double the aforementioned $4bn valuation. Roblox publicly announced its intention to float in October, filing its S1 form with the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) the following month. This showed that the company had not turned a profit since it was founded in 2004.