Nex Playground maker lands over $150M, with Baillie Gifford and BAI Capital leading Series E

Nex, the company behind Nex Playground, the active play system that gets families moving together, announced more than $150M in new equity and debt financing on Sept. 23. The package is split between a Series E led by Baillie Gifford and BAI Capital and a new credit facility with JPMorgan.

The equity round drew participation from NBA Investments, Logitech, Medici Capital Partners and the Raine Group, a mix of institutional and corporate backers. Nex did not disclose a valuation or a breakdown between the equity and debt portions.

The company said the capital supports its expansion, following continued U.S. consumer growth. Specifically, Nex is expanding internationally, broadening its retail distribution and growing its content ecosystem with major gaming and entertainment partners. Nex Playground sits at the intersection of consumer hardware, family entertainment and game publishing, a combination where retail shelf space and content partnerships tend to matter as much as the device itself.

The announcement also carried leadership and governance news. Nex named Jeff Shouger, described as a leading gaming and technology finance executive, as its Chief Financial Officer. Shouger and gaming and technology industry veteran Bing Gordon are both joining the company's board of directors.

The investor roster spans several profiles. Baillie Gifford is a long-standing crossover investor in growth-stage technology companies, while BAI Capital brings a position in Asian markets that lines up with Nex's stated international push. Medici Capital Partners and the Raine Group are established investment firms, and the participation of NBA Investments and Logitech adds two corporate backers with ties to entertainment and consumer hardware respectively. The JPMorgan credit facility gives Nex a debt component alongside the equity, a structure companies often use when financing inventory, retail rollouts or content commitments.

Nex framed the raise as a step in a broader expansion rather than a single-purpose round, tying the money to international growth, distribution and content at once. How far the company has already gone in each of those areas, and how quickly it plans to move, was not detailed in the announcement.