From left: technical director Pavle Mihajlovic, chief executive Barney Wragg and creative director Jonathan Butterell of Unit1 Studio. Credit: Unit1 Studio Unit1 Studio has raised £20M to stage concerts performed by digital recreations of musicians, in an oversubscribed round led by Balderton Capital. The company was founded in February 2025 and is based in Tileyard, north London. The money comes as a mix of equity and production financing, with Mercuri, Gilston Music, Paul McGuinness, who managed U2 for three decades, and Saul Klein also taking part.
The London company does not create holograms. Instead, its performers are synthesized 3D models, shown with visual effects and AI-assisted CGI on large LED screens, and combined with live show lighting, sound, and staging. “Nothing is ‘real’,” chief executive Barney Wragg has said of the approach. The company’s pitch focuses on the economics of ABBA Voyage, which required a custom-built arena in east London that reportedly cost £140 million and has remained there since. Unit1 says its shows are portable, fit venues with fewer than 800 seats, and can run in multiple locations simultaneously.
To prove this, the company has moved a full show from one venue to another in just four days. The business model is based on theatre, not traditional touring. Each show is funded as its own production, and the company says it breaks even at about 70% capacity in the first year. Artists and catalog owners receive higher royalties instead of selling their rights.
This approach differs from Pophouse, the ABBA Voyage backer, which bought the KISS catalog before launching its own avatar show. Wragg previously led Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and held senior digital positions at Universal Music, EMI, and AEG. Jonathan Butterell, director of Everyone’s Talking About Jamie, is the creative director, and Pavle Mihajlovic, who co-founded the video game companies Electric Saint and Flavourworks, is the technical director. Which artists will actually appear is the part nobody can answer yet.
The only performer Unit1 has shown publicly is KT Tunstall, a company ambassador who took part in building her own avatar in a showcase rather than a ticketed run. Unit1 says it will name acts when tickets go on sale. Wragg believes the biggest commercial opportunity is with performers who no longer tour, including both living and retired artists as well as the estates of those who have died. The company has not published a consent framework, and the question of who represents a deceased musician remains unresolved in its own pitch.
