Niantic develops augmented-reality experiences and location-based games, best known for Pokémon GO. The company offers the Lightship AR Developer Kit (ARDK) to let third parties and indie developers build AR experiences using Unity. Niantic says tens of millions of people play its games each month and players have walked more than 10.9 billion miles in its games since launch. ARDK has been used by partners including Coachella, Historic Royal Palaces, Universal Pictures, SoftBank, Warner Music Group and the PGA of America. Niantic positions its effort as a “real-world metaverse” that uses AR and a 3D map of the world to augment physical experiences rather than tether users to VR headsets. Its portfolio includes newer titles like Pikmin Bloom and ended support for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite after consumer spending and global installs declined 57% year over year. Niantic is the developer behind Pokémon GO and the soon-to-be-released Harry Potter Wizards Unite, focused on location-based augmented reality games and developer tools. Its core offerings include AR frameworks and a large database of locational points of interest that it is beginning to open to third-party developers. The company is leveraging Pokémon GO's success as it plots next steps and expands its game portfolio and platform. Niantic has finalized a Series C totaling $245 million and disclosed a valuation of nearly $4 billion. The timing of the raise coincides with the upcoming Wizards Unite launch and the company's broader push to enable external developers on its AR stack. Niantic is an augmented-reality game developer that builds titles designed to get people outside and encourage movement, exploration, and face-to-face social interaction. Its products include Ingress and Pokémon GO. Pokémon GO was downloaded more than 750 million times in its first year. The company plans to use new funding to roll out a Harry Potter–based title. Originally formed at Google in 2010, Niantic operates offices in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Seattle, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Hamburg. Its investors include Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Alsop Louie Partners. Niantic builds real-world mobile games and experiences that combine geo-location technology with social interaction and storytelling. Its flagship title Ingress has been downloaded more than 13 million times and is played worldwide. The company is developing Pokémon GO in collaboration with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, with a planned 2016 release on the App Store and Google Play. Niantic said it will use new funding to continue development of Pokémon GO, evolve and grow the Ingress community, and scale its real-world gaming platform. The company was incubated within Google by founder John Hanke and is based in San Francisco. Niantic intends to bring additional games to market leveraging its platform and strategic investor partnerships.

Total raised

$775M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Nov 2021