Niantic
Funding History
| Series D · 11/2021 | $9.0B |
|---|
About
Niantic began as an internal Google startup led by John Hanke, best known outside the company for creating Keyhole, the mapping technology that became Google Earth. Spun out in 2015 with backing from Google, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, Niantic combined its own real-world mapping platform with Nintendo and Pokémon Company IP to launch Pokémon GO in July 2016, one of the most downloaded mobile apps ever released, followed by Ingress Prime, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now.
- CEO
- Inhi Cho Suh
- Employees
- 51-200 (Niantic Spatial)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Founded
- 2015
- Website
- nianticspatial.com
Overview
Niantic was John Hanke's augmented-reality startup, incubated inside Google and spun out as an independent company in 2015; it built the location-based games Pokémon GO, Ingress and Pikmin Bloom on top of its own real-world mapping technology. In March 2025 Niantic agreed to sell its games division to Scopely for $3.5 billion, a deal that closed on May 29, 2025. On that same day, Niantic's remaining geospatial-AI technology business was spun off as an independent company, Niantic Spatial Inc., capitalized with $250 million and led by Niantic founder John Hanke. Niantic Spatial builds a Large Geospatial Model and Visual Positioning System intended to give AR glasses, robots and other physical AI systems a shared understanding of real-world space, and struck a multi-year strategic partnership with Snap Inc. in June 2025. In March 2026, Hanke named former IBM and DocuSign executive Inhi Cho Suh as Niantic Spatial's CEO and moved into the role of Executive Chairman.
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