Niantic has purchased University of Oxford’s augmented reality engine developer 6D.ai and will use the spinout’s technology for large-scale mapping for its games.

6D.ai, a US-based augmented reality (AR) engine developer spun out from University of Oxford, was acquired by mobile games developer Niantic for an undisclosed sum yesterday. Founded in 2017 as 6Degrees, 6D.ai has built an AR engine to compile three-dimensional, crowdsourced maps of real-world locations using mobile phone cameras. The platform then enables developers to place virtual objects in the physical world in real time. The spinout was the 150th to be founded by the university and its first to be incorporated in the US. The technology will be integrated into Niantic’s platform, enabling it to double down on the AR aspects of its games, which include Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The company aims to build accurate and constantly updated 3D maps on a global scale. 6D.ai raised an unspecified amount of seed capital in 2018 featuring university venture fund Oxford Science Innovation. General Catalyst led that round, which also included assorted angel investors and a range of unnamed backers.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).