![]() ![]() The company raised $300 million from Coatue Management for further development of Lightship and Niantic's "real-world metaverse", valuing the company at $9 billion. In November 2021, Niantic launched the Lightship software development kit for augmented reality based on Unity. ![]() In early 2021, Niantic rebranded the Niantic Real World Platform as Lightship. In December 2018, Niantic announced their Beyond Reality Developer Contest offering third-party developers an opportunity to develop a new game experience on the Niantic Real World Platform for a chance to compete for a prize pool of more than $1 million. Niantic mentioned that they intend to open up the platform in the future for use by third-party developers. The core platform consists of a suite of tools including: AR Cloud, anti-cheat security, POI data, IAP, social, analytics, CRM, sponsorship, and more. In June 2018, Niantic shared a sneak peek behind the technology they had been developing for years: the Niantic Real World Platform. ![]() In 2022, Niantic announced the acquisition of 8th Wall, a WebAR development platform, and NZXR, an augmented reality studio. In 2021, Niantic acquired Scaniverse, a 3D scanning app, and Lowkey, a social gaming platform in which users can record and share gameplay moments. In January 2021, Niantic acquired community gaming platform Mayhem. In March 2020, Niantic acquired 3D world-scanning software company 6D.ai. Niantic CEO Hanke states on behalf of the company that the acquisition "significantly advances efforts in developing a wide range of gaming experiences that bring the physical and digital world closer together". In June 2019, Niantic announced the acquisition of London-based development studio, Sensible Object. The investment will help DigiLens develop holographic waveguide displays for augmented reality applications. In November 2018, Niantic invested in DigiLens alongside Mitsubishi Chemical's Diamond Edge Ventures. The gaming studio consists of industry veterans from EA/Pandemic and Activision, and best known for co-developing Marvel Strike Force. In July 2018, Niantic announced the acquisition of LA-based gaming studio, Seismic Games. The acquisition significantly advances Niantic's efforts to deliver planet-scale AR and provide even more realistic AR experiences. The Matrix Mill team has spent years focusing on perfecting augmented reality occlusion by building deep neural networks that can infer 3D information about the surrounding world. In June 2018, Niantic announced the acquisition of computer vision and machine learning company Matrix Mill. Hanke stated that Niantic planned to allow third-party developers to build AR games similar to Pokémon Go. In February 2018, Niantic announced that it had acquired augmented reality company Escher Reality, a team focused on building persistent, cross-platform, multi-user experiences. At the time of the acquisition, Evertoon was only 18 months old and had only 5 employees. According to the company's announcement, the acquisition is meant to help build social systems. In November 2017, it was announced that Niantic had acquired Evertoon, an app which allows users to make short, personalized films. The investment valued the company at $3.7 billion, excluding the investment itself. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), but also included investments from strategic partners such as AXiomatic Gaming and Samsung Ventures. In January 2019, it was reported that Niantic had raised an additional $245 million in a Series C fundraising round. Spark's Megan Quinn joined Niantic's board of directors during this investment round. In November 2017, Niantic raised $200 million in Series B funding from multiple investors, led by Spark Capital. While adding more support for the growth of the company, this investment enabled Niantic to bring in strategic industry pioneers including the addition of Gilman Louie to its board. Jones Brandtech Ventures, as well as angel investors Lucas Nealan, Cyan Banister, and Scott Banister. In February 2016, Niantic announced that it had secured an additional $5 million in Series A funding including investment from venture capital firms Alsop Louie Partners and You & Mr. During the spinout, Niantic announced that Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company would invest up to $30 million in Series-A funding, $20 million upfront and the remaining $10 million in financing conditioned upon the company achieving certain milestones, to support the growth of the company and its products. The company spun out of Google in October 2015 soon after Google's announcement of its restructuring as Alphabet Inc. At the time Ingress was launched, Niantic had 35 employees. The company took its name from the whaling vessel Niantic, which came to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush in the 1800s. The company was formed in 2010 by John Hanke as Niantic Labs, an internal startup within Google. ![]()
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