Alibaba leads US$60 million investment in AR glasses maker Nreal in move seen as metaverse play
- The latest influx of cash for Nreal brings the company’s funding over the past year US$200 million, the Beijing-based AR firm said
- Alibaba is one of several Chinese Big Tech companies to express an interest in the metaverse, joining ByteDance and Tencent in new hardware investments
The Beijing-based AR glasses maker announced the latest funding in a statement on Wednesday, saying that it had received a total of US$200 million in funding over the past 12 months. The start-up did not disclose the other investors who participated in the latest funding round.
A previous funding round that was announced in September last year valued the company at US$700 million, according to CNBC, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The move from Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, comes as Chinese companies have rushed to embrace the concept of the metaverse, which promises an immersive virtual world where digital representations of people interact in ways that mimic real-world socialisation, work, trade and play. Many consider AR, virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (XR) to be the primary ways people will access metaverse platforms in the future.
Tan Ping, the head of XR at Alibaba’s research and development lab Damo Academy, said in a speech in October that he defines the metaverse as “the internet on VR and AR glasses”. These will be the computing platform of the next generation, he said.
Elaborating on the metaverse concept, Tan said it will be defined by how it is presented on these platforms through activities such as socialising, e-commerce, education, gaming and payments.