AR Startup Magic Leap Raises $827M on Valuation of $3.7B

WSJ, Forbes, The Verge: Augmented-reality startup Magic Leap could raise up to $827 million in a new funding round. This would bring Magic Leap’s total funding to about $1.4 billion. If Magic Leap raises the full amount, it could be valued at about $3.7 billion, according to venture-capital data firm VC Experts. The previous investments came from Google, Qualcomm Ventures, KKR, Vulcan Capital, KPCB, Andreesen Horowtiz, Obvious Ventures and others.

“We’re fundamentally a new kind of lightfield chip to enable new experiences,” said Magic Leap founder and CEO Rony Abovitz at a conference in June. “There’s no off-the-shelf stuff used. That’s the reason for the amount of capital we’ve raised — to go to the moon.” Abovitz also released Magic Leap’s SDK and said the company was building 260,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Florida to develop components for the device.