Yeah. In May 2018, I told you we would change the name because of the confusion of the two THQ NORDIC. It takes some while. We've taken a lot of discussions to actually get this together. Hundreds, if not thousand, a thousand name has been under evaluation, and I'm really happy that you all know that we now will become Embracer Group. It happens today. Let's go. Embracer Group. We embrace great people. For us, it's all about the people. Our people are our most valuable assets. Here you can see a lot of our people across the globe. We are in close to or more than 40 countries. Yeah, all these people, they are the foundation of great companies. Much has happened since the start of the journey, 2011. Let's take a look.
2011, I remember standing here in Karlstad dealing with a company in Vienna called JoWooD, that was in insolvency. That discussion, after six months, ended up that we set up our first business in Vienna. Seven people called Nordic Games GmbH. That gave me a taste for build a business in within development and IPs and publishing. We acquired JoWooD, we acquired DreamCatcher, a number of IPs. We did a lot of IP acquisitions the coming years. Foremost, the THQ Inc, one of the leading publishers that went bankrupt 2012, 2013, along with the setup of our first studios, Rainbow and Grimlore in Munich. Furthermore, 2016, we acquired NovaLogic, but also changed the name to THQ NORDIC. We established Mirage Game Studios here in Karlstad and acquired a Stockholm studio called Foxglove . We made the IPO in November 2016.
That has taken on this growth for close to soon to be three years. We got our friends at Experiment 101 in Stockholm doing Biomutant on board. We got Black Forest Games in Offenburg. We got Pieces Interactive in Skövde, 2017. 2018, we got Volition, FISHLABS, Dambuster, Coffee Stain, Bugbear, HandyGames, Lavapotion, and the whole Koch Media operations with 13 offices across Europe. During 2019, we continued with Milestone, Gunfire Games recently in Austin, the Goodbye Kansas with another five minority investments, t he Gaya, the Game Outlet, that is part of our origin, and then KSM, Piranha Bytes, Warhorse Studios, and 18POINT2.
The question is, what will happen next year? Great companies. Embracer Group. I would like to simplify things, business is not all about me, even though you're used to see me here standing, now you're seeing Johan today, so there is more people. Actually, my boss is Kicki here. She's running the board. Then I'm running my operations through three gentlemen. Two Klemens. One Klemens running THQ NORDIC, Klemens Kundratitz, the founder of Koch Media and Deep Silver in Munich, and then finally, Anton Westbergh running Coffee Stain. That's the management structure.
Above me, I have Kicki, but not only Kicki, I have Erik, my partner in crime since 20 years, and Ulf, and Jacob at the board. It's a fantastic cooperation. Sometimes there is a lot of board meetings, but that's the way it is. It's not only about the board, it's also about strengthening the parent company. I know a lot of institutions are asking me, "When are you adding more compliance, Lars?" Yes, we are adding more compliance or financial control. I'm happy to welcome during the year or the past month here, not only Johan, but also Egil, Karin, and Beatrice, the parent company.
We are 11 people now employed. We have a list of other key people I would like to get on board, positions or people. I'm not in a rush. It needs to take time, and we need to get the right team together. It feels very good at the moment. It's not only the employees here. We have a wide range of advisors. Ian and along with your colleagues are partly functioning as legal department, EY and various teams, but also a lot of other banks and auditors and God knows how many companies I'm working or we are working on a daily basis with. Along with more than 10 consultants that are like employees, only or to minority working with us only within the game industry that are partly sourcing M&A targets into the group for example.