SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Real world games maker Niantic, Inc. has raised its Series A financing round from The Pokémon Company Group, Google and Nintendo. The companies are investing up to $30 million in Niantic, Inc., which includes an initial $20 million upfront and an additional $10 million conditioned upon achieving certain milestones. Niantic, Inc. will leverage the funding and strategic relationships to continue work on Pokémon GO, support its thriving global Ingress community, scale its platform and bring new games to market.
“The Pokémon Company, Google and Nintendo are incredible investors and strategic partners to help build the next chapter for Niantic,” said John Hanke, CEO, Niantic. “We will be using this capital to continue the development of Pokémon GO, to evolve and grow Ingress and its thriving global community, and to build out our real-world gaming platform.”
Pokémon GO, Niantic’s most recently announced project, is being developed in collaboration with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. The new title is a groundbreaking mobile game that will encourage fans to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Pokémon GO will be available on the App Store and Google Play in 2016.
“Pokémon’s strategic investment in Niantic paves the way for a social mobile experience the world has never seen before,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company. “The Pokémon Company is committed to partnering with companies like Niantic that share the same spirit of community and innovation.”
"Niantic has shown the great potential of mixing geo-location technology, dynamic storytelling and innovative game design, and we're excited to continue supporting the team on their journey,” Don Harrison, vice president, Corporate Development, Google, added.
Originally founded by Google Earth co-creator John Hanke as a start-up within Google, Niantic is known for creating Ingress, the real world mobile game which utilizes geo-location technology to fuel a sci-fi story encompassing the entire world. Ingress has seen more than 13 million downloads worldwide.
About Pokémon
The Pokémon Company International, a
subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages the property outside
of Asia and is responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing,
the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home
entertainment, and the official Pokémon website. Pokémon was launched in
Japan in 1996, and today is one of the most popular children’s
entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit www.pokemon.com.
About Niantic, Inc.
Niantic, Inc. builds real world
experiences that foster fun, exploration, discovery and social
interaction. Originally incubated within Google, Niantic was founded by
John Hanke, who previously helmed the Google Geo team (including Google
Maps and Google Earth) after his start-up Keyhole was acquired by
Google. The company’s real-world adventure game Ingress has been
downloaded more than 13 million times and is played in more than 200
countries and territories worldwide. For more information on Niantic,
please visit www.nianticlabs.com.
About Nintendo
The worldwide pioneer in the creation of
interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan,
manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™
and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and
Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when
it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has
sold more than 4.3 billion video games and more than 680 million
hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U,
Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo 3DS XL™, as well as the Game Boy™,
Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi
XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo
GameCube™, and Wii systems. It has also created industry
icons that have become well-known household names such as Mario™,
Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™, and
Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America
Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s
operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about
Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.
