Balderton 
- Balderton News
- 23 September, 2026
Unit1 Studio, the end-to-end avatar concert producer, today announced a major breakthrough in the commercial adoption of avatar concerts – the ability to rapidly and economically transfer avatar concert productions between venues – effectively breaking a huge barrier to market adoption of avatar concerts. In light of this breakthrough, Unit1 has secured a further $20M of new investment to fuel its work creating and operating mixed reality avatar concerts, transporting fans to legendary performances from the artists they love.
While ABBA Voyage has proven audience appetite for concerts of artists who can no longer tour, the eye-watering costs of development and replication of similar productions has proved prohibitive for a majority of artists. Unit1’s unique technology removes these barriers increasing the number of artists for which avatar concerts now become a commercial reality. As proven by Unit1 successfully moving its KT Tunstall avatar showcase from its former Hammersmith location to a new purpose-built studio at Tileyard London, where they will showcase and develop its hyper-realistic avatar concerts.
Until now, avatar concerts have been locked behind the economics of ABBA Voyage – a one-off, one-location proposition. Unit1’s innovative new technology will fundamentally change that, opening up the genre to a whole generation of legacy artists. Barney is hugely respected in the industry and has managed to solve a structural problem that everyone knew existed but nobody had cracked. As a founder, Barney brings a unique blend of creative vision and commercial nous to every project that he sets his mind to, and having followed his journey for many years I couldn’t be more delighted to formally partner for the next chapter of Unit1.
Daniel Waterhouse Partner, Balderton
Unit1 is, and will always be, about expanding the connection between fan and artist regardless of time or geography. ABBA Voyage proved audiences love avatar concerts but the development and relocation costs have meant the opportunity of avatar concerts is not being realised. Our ability to develop these shows at a fraction of the cost and replicate them to any location finally makes these shows a commercial reality. The combination of our technology, new financing and our growing team, means we can develop shows for artists and fans worldwide.
