Roblox

Roblox Corporation traces its origins to 2004, when David Baszucki and Erik Cassel founded a company in Menlo Park, California, building a physics-based, user-generated content platform initially called 'Dynablocks.' The product was renamed Roblox in 2005 and publicly launched on September 1, 2006. Baszucki had previously co-founded Knowledge Revolution in 1989, an educational physics-simulation software company acquired by MSC Software in December 1998; co-founder Erik Cassel remained with the company until his death from cancer on February 11, 2013. Roblox grew slowly for its first decade, raising small early rounds from investors including Altos Ventures, First Round Capital, and Kleiner Perkins. Growth accelerated in the mid-to-late 2010s: a Series E round closed in March 2017, a $150 million Series F in September 2018 (Altos Ventures, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures) valued the company near $2.5 billion, and a $150 million Series G in February 2020 (led by Andreessen Horowitz) valued it at roughly $4 billion. Pandemic-driven engagement growth pushed Roblox to confidentially file for an IPO in October 2020; it then raised a final $520 million Series H in January 2021 at a $29.5 billion valuation, and pivoted from a traditional IPO to a direct listing. Roblox began trading on the NYSE under ticker RBLX on March 10, 2021, giving a fully diluted valuation of about $45.3 billion — at the time the largest direct listing on record. As of mid-2026, Roblox reports roughly 123 million daily active users, quarterly revenue of about $1.5 billion, and around 3,065 employees. David Baszucki remains founder, Chairman, and CEO. The company has faced a wave of child-safety-related controversies and litigation, including a 2025 backlash after Roblox issued a cease-and-desist to a 'predator hunter' YouTuber, mandatory age-verification rollout through 2025-2026, a $12 million child-safety settlement with Alabama (April 2026), and a formal U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee investigation opened August 12, 2026 into child-safety practices.

Business model

Freemium platform / marketplace: the core platform is free to use; Roblox generates revenue when users purchase Robux with real money to buy in-experience items, plus growing immersive advertising revenue sold to brands.

Virtual currency (Robux) sales converted to 'Bookings'; developers who build experiences earn a share of Robux spent via the Developer Exchange (DevEx) program, plus growing immersive-advertising revenue.