Member Article

Oscar winning VFX studio secures £2m BGF investment

A London and Cardiff-based visual effects studio that has worked on big-name films including Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina and BBC drama Sherlock, has received an initial £2m investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF).

Milk Visual Effects was founded back in 2013 by current Chief Executive Will Cohen and Co-Founder Sara Bennett as part of a team of five VFX supervisors and producers, and has now grown to encompass a team of 150 staff spread across its two offices.

Focused on feature films and high-end television, the studio has received BAFTA awards for its work on Doctor Who and critically acclaimed BBC drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Bennett also won an Oscar back in 2016 for her work on Ex-Machina.

The studio will now utilise the investment from its new relationship with BGF to expand its studios, including investments in new technical equipment, R&D and to attract the ‘best’ industry talent.

Milk Chief Executive Officer, Will Cohen, said: “Our new partnership with BGF and the appointment of Ivan Dunleavy as chairman will help us to deliver the most challenging and creative visual effects work for the global feature film, high end television and emerging digital content markets.

“We look forward to building on our success over the last four years - which is testament to the dedication and expertise of our team at Milk. It’s a wonderful way to begin our fifth year in business.”

As part of the investment, former Pinewood Group Chief Executive, Ivan Dunleavy, will be joining Milk as its non-executive Chairman, who commented that he was looking forward to working with the studio on the next stage of their growth.

He said: “The team at Milk, led by Will Cohen, has done a fantastic job at building the business and establishing its credentials in the globally competitive VFX marketplace.

“I look forward to working with them and BGF in realising the next stage of our exciting plan to develop the Milk brand even further, at a time when audiences on all channels and platforms expect quality creative content.”

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