Nex, the company behind controller-free games console Nex Playground, has raised more than $150m in equity and debt financing to fund an international expansion that includes planned launches in Japan and Korea in 2027.
According to the company, the round is made up of a Series E led by investment firms Baillie Gifford and BAI Capital, alongside a new credit facility with JPMorgan. NBA Investments, Logitech, Medici Capital Partners and the Raine Group also took part. Nex said the funding will go towards international launches, wider retail distribution and new content partnerships with gaming and entertainment companies.
The company has also appointed Jeff Shouger as Chief Financial Officer. Shouger was most recently CFO of Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon GO, where he led several capital raises and helped oversee the sale of its games business to Scopely. He previously held senior finance roles at Zynga, including through its IPO.
Shouger joins Nex's Board of Directors alongside Bing Gordon, an early Electronic Arts executive who later served as the publisher's Chief Creative Officer. Gordon has spent close to two decades at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and sat on Amazon's board for nearly 15 years.
"Families have timeless needs: to move, grow, connect, and have fun. The response to Nex Playground has shown us that active play can serve those needs at a meaningful scale," said David Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Nex. "We are building Nex to be a 100-year company. This investment gives us the resources to bring active play to millions more families around the world."
Nex Playground's growth
Nex Playground is a palm-sized box that plugs into a television and uses a wide-angle camera to track players' body movements, with no controllers or wearables involved. Nex has said motion processing is handled on the device rather than sent to external servers.
The company said it has now sold more than 1m units and that the system is stocked in over 7,000 US retail locations, including Costco, Sam's Club, Target, Walmart and Best Buy. Market research firm Circana previously reported that the console was the third best-selling piece of gaming hardware by volume in the US in November 2025, ahead of the Xbox Series X|S.
The system is sold for $299 in the US, with an $89 annual subscription covering the full library. Nex said its subscriber base has grown sevenfold over the past 18 months and is approaching 1m subscribers, a figure it expects to pass before the end of the year.
More than 60 games are available, including titles built around Bluey, Barbie, Kung Fu Panda and Peppa Pig. NFL Flag, Dude Perfect Trickshot Challenge and a PAC-MAN game with Bandai Namco Entertainment are all due this autumn and winter.
Japan and Korea launches planned for 2027
Nex Playground has already launched in Canada, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, with Germany set to follow later this year. As reported previously by Inven, Japan and Korea are scheduled for 2027, with further European and Asian markets after that.
The company is also working on Connected Play, a feature that would let households play together remotely. Nex has previously told Inven that the feature will operate on a "no strangers, only friends and family" basis.
For the Korean market, Nex's most notable partner is HYBE. The two companies announced in June that they would release a co-branded version of rhythm game Starri built around BTS music, played through full-body motion.
Camera-based living room gaming was previously explored by the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Kinect, the latter of which was discontinued in 2017. Nex's pricing structure for Korea, which currently combines hardware sales with an annual subscription in the US, has yet to be confirmed.
