Pokemon Go and Ingress developer Niantic have revealed they have just received a huge investment boost from Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, and Google.
The two giants have invested $ 30 million after their first Series A round, aka the first round of venture capital financing. This places the three companies in a good position to profit from Niantic’s future successes. $ 20 million will be paid up front, with $ 10 million to be paid out after reaching conditional milestones.
Niantic revealed in a press release that they will be using the money in development for Pokemon Go. You can read Niantic CEO John Hanke’s full statement below.
The Pokémon Company, Google and Nintendo are incredible investors and strategic partners to help build the next chapter for 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.
In the meantime, analyst Serkan Toto shares some interesting details on the announcement. This deal was already known for some time now, but they only revealed the amount today.
1) The investment was previously announced. What’s new is the sum. I met Niantic's CEO John Hanke in March in SF. https://t.co/RbO9JKpeAG
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) October 15, 2015
2) We talked for 1 hour about, but he didn’t mention the word “Nintendo” even once. He did say that he planned to go to Kyoto in summer.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) October 15, 2015
3) He then actually attended an event there (which I didn’t). So it can be assumed the Nintendo deal was firmed up/closed then. /end
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) October 15, 2015
Serkan actually met Niantic CEO John Hanke in March. John alluded to going to Kyoto in the summer but never mentioned Nintendo. John did go to an event in Japan, and Serkan believes this was when the deal was finalized. While we only have Serkan’s word on this, it sounds like the whole deal completely went down this year, partly when Iwata was still Nintendo CEO, in a mere matter of months.
Are you looking forward to a Pokemon Go worth $ 30 million? Where do you hope that money will go to? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
