Valued At $9B, Pokemon Go Creator To Build Metaverse With Fresh Funding

Read the full article by Helen Partz here

Prominent crypto investor Coatue, known for backing Chainalysis, invested $300 million in Niantic’s metaverse project.

Key Points:

On Monday the company announced $300-million raise from the technology-focused investment manager Coatue, bringing the worth of the company to $9 billion.

Coatue is known to be a major investor in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry backing companies such as blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, cryptocurrency startup Fireblocks, blockchain security firm CertiK and others. They also participated in a in a $555 million funding round for cryptocurrency startup MoonPay.

“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,” Coatue general partner Matt Mazzeo said. “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,” he added.

“We’re building a future where the real world is overlaid with digital creations, entertainment and information, making it more magical, fun and informative,” Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke said. Nitantic wants to bring people closer in the outside world.

“At Niantic, we believe humans are the happiest when their virtual world leads them to a physical one. Unlike a sci-fi metaverse, a real-world metaverse will use technology to improve our experience of the world as we’ve known it for thousands of years,” Hanke said.

Pokemon Go has become one of the most successful mobile games ever. Now crossing $5 billion in revenue mark earlier this year. Some players in the blockchain industry got inspired by Pokemon Go, with the firm IoTeX introducing its “Pebble Go” project, aiming to incorporate real-world data to NFTs using verifiable GPS information.