Niantic Incorporations raised $300 million from investments by Coatue at a valuation of $9 billion. The company plans to use the funds to expand its recently launched Lightship platform to help developers with their AR creations and build their visions for "the Real-World Metaverse".
The company has launched its own fund named Niantic Ventures, when it raised $245 million in its Series C round of investments in early 2019.
"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.
Niantic launched Pikmin Bloom with Nintendo Co Ltd last month, an AR-based smartphone app that enables users to see tiny, plant-like creatures. It had partnered with Nintendo for Pokemon Go a few years earlier, the first game that saw a mass market adoption of AR.
