Based on a regulatory document that was filed on Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Comission, the creator of the popular game Pokémon Go, Niantic, has just closed a $190 million round of funding. This takes places just a little bit over a year after the company from San Francisco managed to raise $200 million in a Series B funding round.
According to Niantic, the total number of investors that took part in the most recent round is 26. They brought the total raised funding of the mobile AR gaming startup to approximately $415 million.
Pokémon Go – the fastest-growing app of all time
We all know that Pokémon Go was a huge success. It was the fastest-growing app that we’ve seen until the present time. The game was launched back in July 2016 and based on some Apptopia estimates, it only took 811 days for Pokémon Go to get to $2 billion in in-app purchases. It was the third-fastest game that can be played on mobile phones that achieved something like this.
Why would Niantic need this money?
When it comes to the latest funding round, why would the company need this amount of money? Well, we know that Niantic is preparing for the release of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which will be an augmented reality mobile game, so this could be the reason behind the raised money. In 2017, the company made an announcement about its partnership with Warner Bros. on the above-mentioned game. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is expected to launch this year, so if we connect the dots we will see that there’s a big chance that this is why Niantic needed the funding. There is also a possibility that the company wants to invest in creating software for AR glasses or maybe even in developing AR glasses, but we don’t know yet.
Nevertheless, the creator of Pokémon Go did not make any comments on this, so nothing is certain yet. Whether the raised money will be used for the upcoming AR game or for something completely different in the future, we don’t know for now. It remains to be seen. The funding round closed on the 20th of December.
Frances might be just at the beginning of her career, but after attending a technical school, she has a fresh perspective on today’s technology. She contributes to the site with tech news.