Improbable warned of sustaining profitability after £39m loss

ENTREPRENEUR Herman Narula has warned that his gaming software business Improbable is yet to demonstrate self-sustaining profitability.

The SoftBank-backed start-up recorded another heavy loss before tax of £39 million for the year ended to May 2019.

The London based company was founded by Cambridge University alumnus Narula in 2012.

Born in Delhi, Narula, 32, is a British Indian businessman and chief executive of Improbable.

The main risk to the business was that its cutting edge technology “is not yet demonstrating self-sustaining profitability”, although its funding from SoftBank had “significantly de-risked this in the near term”, according to company directors.

Operating losses of the Narula’s firm jumped to £64m, but its loss before tax fell thanks to foreign exchange gains.

The start-up still has £362m in total assets.

An Improbable spokesman said: “Our 2018-19 accounts show that we spent that period focused on the growth of our company. We increased our headcount by 48 per cent.

“We moved to a larger office in London and significantly expanded our operations in Canada and China. This increased our operating expenses.

“However, these results do not reflect major changes to the company which took place in the nine months since these accounts were closed.”

Improbable employs more than 500 staff in Europe, China and North America.

Improbable makes innovative multiplayer titles using its own technology, with studios in Canada, the US and Britain.

The business provides technology for game makers to enable powerful virtual worlds and simulations designed to help solve previously intractable problems.

In gaming and entertainment, this enables game makers to create richer, more immersive and persistent virtual worlds.