An experience-first company building “experiums” - and the Museum of Ice Cream.
Figure8 is not, strictly speaking, in the ice cream business - and never was. The New York company builds physical spaces, and the most valuable thing it sells is a feeling: the pull of being somewhere worth putting your phone down for. Its founders, Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora, gave that category a name most people had never heard before - the “experium” - and then spent the better part of a decade proving it could be a business.
The proof of concept was the Museum of Ice Cream, a self-funded pop-up that opened in Manhattan's Meatpacking District in 2016. A sprinkle pool, rooms engineered to be photographed, a route designed for groups rather than solo browsing. It looked like a gimmick. It behaved like a phenomenon. By 2018 the concept had drawn more than a million visitors and generated, by the company's account, billions of media impressions - most of them made by the visitors themselves.
In August 2019 the founders formalized the operation as Figure8, Inc., the parent company, and raised a $40 million Series A at a reported $200 million valuation. Bunn was 27. The round was led by Elizabeth Street Ventures and Maywic Select Investment, with OCV Partners joining as a strategic investor. The plan the founders described was straightforward: keep opening Museum of Ice Cream locations, launch new Figure8 brands, and take on commissioned work for outside partners.
What makes Figure8 worth studying is the discipline underneath the whimsy. The pink rooms are a delivery mechanism. The actual product is engineered shareability - spaces built so that the customer's own social feed becomes the marketing channel. That is a genuinely different growth model from traditional retail or entertainment, and it is the reason a company built around sprinkles could scale across cities and continents.
“I want to inspire people around the world with what I call experiums - emotional and transformative moments and spaces for people to reconnect with themselves and those around them.”
Designs, builds and operates immersive, multi-sensory venues - “experiums” - and develops experiential brands, the flagship being the Museum of Ice Cream.
Primarily millennial and Gen-Z visitors, families and groups looking for shareable, in-person entertainment - plus brands commissioning custom activations.
Attention has moved onto screens and storefronts have emptied. Figure8 turns underused physical space into a reason to gather offline.
Figure8 sits inside location-based experiential entertainment, alongside players such as Meow Wolf, Color Factory and Museum of Illusions. Its edge is a repeatable, ticketed venue brand - the Museum of Ice Cream - that scales city to city.
A multi-sensory, interactive attraction - famous for its sprinkle pool - with permanent and pop-up locations across the US and internationally.
Large-scale immersive environments engineered for play, social interaction and shareable moments - the company's coined category and building block.
Custom experiential spaces and special projects designed and built for external brands and partners.
Additional owned experiential concepts developed and scaled under the Figure8 parent company beyond the Museum of Ice Cream.
Figure8 earns primarily through ticketed admissions, supplemented by on-site retail, food & beverage, private events and merchandise. It layers on commissioned activations for outside brands, and scales by rolling out new locations of proven concepts.
Illustrative weighting of typical experiential-venue revenue mix - directional, not company-reported.
NYU and Parsons-trained designer who coined the “experium.” Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and Ad Age's Creativity 50 (2017).
Yale economics graduate who co-launched the first Museum of Ice Cream pop-up and drives the company's expansion strategy.
Leadership spans marketing, people, finance, and development & construction - combining entrepreneurial, design and investment expertise.
Bunn and Vora self-fund and open the first Museum of Ice Cream in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.
Bunn is named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and Ad Age's Creativity 50 as the concept goes viral.
The Museum of Ice Cream surpasses 1 million visitors as demand spreads across US cities.
The founders launch Figure8 as the parent company, raising a $40M Series A at a reported $200M valuation and opening a Soho flagship.
New permanent locations open, including Miami and Boston, deepening the venue portfolio.
Figure8 reveals its first purpose-built Museum of Ice Cream building in California.
A Las Vegas Museum of Ice Cream location is announced for 2026.
The Museum of Ice Cream's sprinkle pool is filled with millions of antimicrobial plastic sprinkles - not real ones.
“Experium” is a word Maryellis Bunn coined; you won't find it in a standard dictionary.
The first Museum of Ice Cream was a self-funded summer pop-up in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.
The company's public email handle is literally scream@figure-8.co - a nod to “I scream for ice cream.”
Figure8 is an experience-first development company that designs and operates immersive, multi-sensory spaces it calls “experiums” - most famously the Museum of Ice Cream - built to bring people together offline.
It was co-founded by Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora, who serve as Co-CEOs. They launched the first Museum of Ice Cream pop-up together in 2016.
Figure8 raised a $40 million Series A in August 2019, led by Elizabeth Street Ventures, Maywic Select Investment and OCV Partners, at a reported $200 million valuation.
It's a term coined by Maryellis Bunn for large-scale immersive spaces designed for play, social connection and shareable moments - “outside of distraction, away from expectation and beyond inhibition.”
Figure8 is headquartered in New York City with roughly 23–35 employees, and operates Museum of Ice Cream locations across US and international cities.
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Sources: figure-8.co, Wikipedia, PR Newswire, Forbes, Inc., Crunchbase, Madame Architect. Figures such as valuation and revenue are as reported by third parties and approximate.