john hanke
AR glasses with multimodal AI nets funding from Pokémon GO creator
In the week when gadget lovers around the world are enchanted by Vision Pro, a young, brave startup is trying to carve out a space for its augmented reality device…
The company behind Pokémon GO, Niantic lays off 8% of staff and cancels 4 projects
Pokémon GO developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing turbulent economic times, the company decided to let go…
Niantic transcends Discord to build Campfire, an AR social network, and unveils Lightship VPS
Since the launch of Pokémon Go in 2016, players have been coordinating meetups, in-game raids and battles on platforms like Reddit and Discord. This summer, parent company Niantic is unveiling…
Just a month after its last acquisition of the WebAR development platform 8th Wall, Niantic announced its purchase of New Zealand-based augmented reality studio NZXR today. These strategic acquisitions are…
Niantic raises $300M at a $9B valuation to build the ‘real-world metaverse’
Niantic, the augmented reality platform that’s developing games like Pokémon GO, raised $300 million from Coatue, valuing the company at $9 billion. The San Fransisco-based startup, which initially spun out…
Niantic reveals its vision for a ‘real-world metaverse,’ releases Lightship AR Developer Kit
AR technology company Niantic, best known for Pokémon GO, announced today that it will launch Lightship, an AR Developer Kit (ARDK) that will make building augmented reality experiences more accessible.…
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Niantic’s follow-up to Pokémon GO, is shutting down
Niantic’s augmented reality game about the boy who lived is about to die. The company that brought us Pokémon GO debuted Harry Potter: Wizards Unite two years ago, following a…
How Niantic evolved Pokémon GO for the year no one could go anywhere
Pokémon GO was created to encourage players to explore the world while coordinating impromptu large group gatherings — activities we’ve all been encouraged to avoid since the pandemic began.
Ray Dalio, Niantic, Adobe, Dropbox, remote work, Northzone, and Slack
Ray Dalio on the Extra Crunch stage at Disrupt SF 2019 This year at Disrupt SF, we will be hosting a special Extra Crunch stage focused on the issues that…
In this week’s newsletter: Slack’s direct listing, Juul’s conundrum and Facebook’s new cryptocurrency.
A chat with Niantic CEO John Hanke on the launch of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
Just shy of three years ago, Pokémon GO took over the world. Players filled the sidewalks, and crowds of trainers flooded parks and landmarks. Anywhere you looked, people were throwing…
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Nine lessons on how Niantic reached a $4B valuation
We’ve captured much of Niantic’s ongoing story in the first three parts of our EC-1, from its beginnings as an “entrepreneurial lab” within Google, to its spin-out as an independent company and the launch of Pokémon GO, to its ongoing focus on becoming a platform for others to build augmented reality products upon. The Niantic…
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Harry Potter, the Platform, and the Future of Niantic
What is Niantic? If they recognize the name, most people would rightly tell you it’s a company that makes mobile games, like Pokémon GO, or Ingress, or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. But no one at Niantic really seems to box it up as a mobile gaming company. Making these games is a big part of…
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The definitive Niantic reading guide
In just a few years, Niantic has evolved from internal side project into an independent industry trailblazer. Having reached tremendous scale in such a short period of time, Niantic acts as a poignant crash course for founders and company builders. As our EC-1 deep-dive into the company shows, lessons from the team’s experience building the…
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Pokémon GO and the April Fools’ joke that made billions
It’s the morning of March 31st, 2014, and the Google Maps team is about to release its April Fools’ Day gag to the world. It wasn’t the first time this team had goofed around with an April Fools’ day joke. Google, as a whole, goes wild on April 1st. Maybe it’s for the resulting publicity.…
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How a Google side project evolved into a $4B company
How did Niantic happen? How did the company behind Pokémon GO and (soon) Harry Potter: Wizards Unite come to be? When anyone talks about Niantic, they generally mention that it’s “a Google spinout” and move on. As if that’s something that just happens every day. That dozens of people within a massive company come together,…
Pokémon Go creator raises $200 million ahead of Harry Potter game launch
Pokémon Go creator Niantic has raised a new $200 million in funding, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Series B raise was led by Spark Capital, and includes participation from…
Some Pokémon Go players given lifetime bans are being let back into the game
Did you get banned from playing Pokémon Go after downloading an app that you thought might make the game more fun? Well, it turns out that you might be able…
John Hanke, the CEO of Pokemon Go creator Niantic, has been hacked on Twitter by the hacker group OurMine. In the past 24 hours, the hacker collective took control of…
