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Niantic has reportedly raised $200 million

CEO John Hanke has said that series B round will allow long-term bets on the AR market

Niantic Inc. has reportedly raised $200 million in its series B round, money that CEO John Hanke said would be used to make a long-term bet on augmented reality.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the $200 million round was led by Spark Capital, with contributions from Founders Fund, Meritech, Javelin Venture Capital, You & Mr. Jones and NetEase. Spark Capital's Megan Quinn will join Niantic's board as a result of the deal.

In an email, CEO John Hanke spoke of the "new strategic opportunities" the funding would open up for Niantic, including "long-term investments" in AR.

Hanke has talked publicly about his belief in the potential of the AR market, going so far as to critique the capaibilities of the iPhone X for placing too much emphasis on the visual component of the experience. Niantic CTO Phil Keslin made similar comments shortly after, when he suggested that audio would be a key feature in the studio's future products.

One of those products will be a game based on the Harry Potter universe. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will be co-developed with Warner Bros. Interactive, and it promises to be another huge hit for Niantic, following the enormous success of Pokemon Go.

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Matthew Handrahan

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Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.