Recently Google did that corporate restructuring of all their companies, creating a new top-tier company called Alphabet. When that happened, Niantic Labs actually was removed from being owned by Google, becoming their own true entity. Today the Ingress developer has announced that they have received funding to the tune of $30 million from Google, The Pokemon Company, and Nintendo. It is a pretty interesting mix.
So what is this funding for? Well the funding is split into a couple of parts. Niantic gets $20 million upfront, with another $10 million to be dished out in parts as certain milestones are reached. Part of this funding is to push further and future development of Nintendo’s and The Pokemon Company’s upcoming Pokemon GO mobile game, which is Niantic’s current project. The funding is also for continued support of Ingress, increase Niantic’s location-based platform in general, and bring new games to market as well.
Pokémon’s strategic investment in Niantic paves the way for a social mobile experience the world has never seen before. The Pokémon Company is committed to partnering with companies like Niantic that share the same spirit of community and innovation. – Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company
As mentioned earlier, part of the reason for the funding happens to be for bringing new games to market. Unfortunately no other games were mentioned, which means either Nintendo, Google, or The Pokemon Company have something else up their sleeve besides Pokemon GO. It will be interesting to see exactly what that is.
Developer Website: Niantic Labs
