Pokemon Go developer Niantic has raised $300 million on a $9 billion valuation.
The lead investor Coatue has been very active in 2021, also leading big rounds in blockchain companies including Dapper Labs and OpenSea.
There’s no mention of blockchain from Niantic yet, with the company talking about building a “real-world metaverse”.
As well as its games, Niantic has launched its Lightship AR Developer Kit, which enables other developers to build location-based AR on top of the technology powering Pokemon Go.
Niantic has also been working on its own AR glasses although little is known about this hardware apart from the occasional cryptic tweet.
“Niantic is building a platform for AR based on a 3D map of the world that we believe will play a critical role in the next transition in computing,” said Matt Mazzeo, a general partner at Coatue.
“We are excited to partner with Niantic because we see this infrastructure supporting a metaverse for the real world and helping to power the next evolution of the internet.”
To date, Pokemon Go has generated more than $5 billion in life-time revenue.
Data fiend and editor-at-large Jon Jordan has been writing/speaking about the games industry since 1999. He's always been a man who's a step ahead, gaze firmly fixed beyond the horizon, rarely content with the here-and-now. So he's particularly pleased the rest of us are finally catching up – but he knew we eventually would.
