Magic Leap is an augmented reality startup, which was inaugurated in 2010. The company is yet to launch its first product, but it was currently valued at $3.7 billion before its recent Series C round. The startup announced that it has raised $793.5 in the said round, which now puts the company’s valuation at $4.5 billion.
The financing was led by China’s giant online marketplace Alibaba. Existing investors that participated are Qualcomm Ventures and Google. New investors include JP Morgan, Warner Bros, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, Wellington Management, and T. Rowe Price among others.
What makes these investors gamble so much on Magic Leap is perhaps because the company has already spent years perfecting its technology. As quoted from a report by TechCrunch, “That work is not just about writing code, but about processing power and essentially creating completely new environments to develop and test what is being developed.”
Alibaba has a lot of advantage in its involvement with Magic Leap. It can fix the disconnect that customers tend to feel in buying things they can’t see with their own eyes.
“We believe Alibaba can both provide support to and learn from such a partner, and we look forward to working with the Magic Leap team,” Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman, Joe Tsai said in an interview.
Source: Techcrunch
