Niantic, the company that developed Pokemon Go, the mobile augmented reality game is building a metaverse with the new fund it has raised. It achieved a valuation of $9 billion after it received $300 million from Coatue, an investment fund focused on technology. Coatue has invested in several blockchain and cryptocurrency entities. Companies that have received investments from it include Chainalysis, Fireblocks and CertiK, among many others. It recently contributed to the $555 million fund raised for MoonPay, a fintech startup.
The New Metaverse Platform
Niantic plans to build this metaverse platform with a focus on AR and the world’s 3D map. It believes these technologies will play an important role in moving to computing and solving real-world problems. Matt Mazzeo, the general manager of Coatue said that partnering with Niantic is exciting because it will see the development of new metaverse infrastructure. This infrastructure is expected to solve real-world problems and lead to the next Internet revolution. No claim was made by Niantic that its metaverse will have any cryptocurrency, nonfungible token or blockchain technologies. John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic said that the company will build a setup where digital creation, information and entertainment solutions are used for the real world applications.
Different from Other Metaverse Solutions
It is different from the Meta announced by Facebook in October which indicated its goal to develop virtual reality solutions. On the other hand, Niantic will develop metaverse solutions that connect people to the real world. Hanke said that Niantic believes in making people happiest by integrating their virtual environment with the physical one. It is not like sci-fi imaginary metaverse but a real world one where new technologies are used to improve the experience of this world
