Niantic is building a real-world Metaverse using AR technology

Niantic, the creators of various AR games like Pokemon Go has raised a cool 300 million dollars for creating what they call a ‘Real-world metaverse’. Global investment firm Coatue is funding this initiative, which brings the valuation at 9 Billion dollars.

The founder and CEO of Niantic, John Hanke had called metaverse (at least the ones which use VR headsets) a dystopian Nightmare. Many metaverses like the Meta are expected to be tied up to specific VR headsets. Niantic wants to take a different approach to build a metaverse, by allowing access to it via AR.

“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. 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.” — said Matt Mazzeo, a general partner at Coatue.

Niantic said that they are committed to bringing people closer to the outside world. Similar to what they did with Pokemon Go, which inspired millions to walk around for catching various pokemon.

“At Niantic, we believe humans are the happiest when their virtual world leads them to a physical one,” — Hanke