Magic Leap is very proud to announce our partnership with NTT DOCOMO, INC., Japan’s largest mobile operator. DOCOMO will be the exclusive telecommunications partner of Magic Leap in Japan. The partnership will combine two powerful technologies, DOCOMO’s planned 5G infrastructure and Magic Leap’s spatial computing, to deliver the next computing platform to DOCOMO customers.
Magic Leap, the maker of augmented-reality goggles, has already raised $2.3 billion, an extraordinary amount for a start-up. Now it has secured yet another investment — and could raise still more cash.
Magic Leap, the maker of augmented-reality goggles, has already raised $2.3 billion, an extraordinary amount for a start-up. Now it has secured yet another investment — and could raise still more cash.
The company said Friday that it had garnered $280 million from NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest cellphone service provider, as part of a new partnership between them. It will also reopen its most recent fund-raising round to potentially accept even more cash from new and existing investors.
It is the latest move by Magic Leap to build its vision of making its flavor of augmented reality — where people see computer-generated images in the real world, thanks to a special headset — ubiquitous. The partnership between Magic Leap and DOCOMO is an expansion of our telecommunications partner strategy, designed to grow the global footprint of our spatial computing technology, and includes a 280 million USD investment in Magic Leap. This partnership also furthers the realization of the Magicverse, an emergent system of systems bridging the physical and digital in a persistent manner that will eventually scale to be global in reach.
Utilizing Magic Leap’s devices and DOCOMO’s world-class network, the partnership will also help create the future of immersive media content and experiences in Japan. As part of the partnership, Magic Leap and Docomo will also work together to create an immersive media platform utilizing the next generation of Magic Leap devices and DOCOMO’s 5G network.
As the premier mobile operator in Japan, DOCOMO has deep relationships with creators, enterprises, developers and consumers. We are excited to be partnering to foster the development of spatial computing content and provide support for the developer and creator communities who are helping to build out the spatial computing ecosystem.
"DOCOMO is proud to offer new value-added services never experienced before to our customers and partners through our partnership with Magic Leap," said NTT DOCOMO President and Chief Executive Officer Kazuhiro Yoshizawa. "DOCOMO aims to co-create advanced MR services and expand the XR market by leveraging open innovation and combining innovative technologies such as Spatial Computing provided by Magic Leap with DOCOMO's assets including our 5G network and 70 million membership base."
In addition to commercializing relevant consumer and enterprise use cases and creating spatial computing content and services, Magic Leap and DOCOMO will work collaboratively to customize Magic Leap’s software operating system for the Japanese market.
“The partnership between Magic Leap and DOCOMO combines the power of spatial computing with Japan’s premier mobile operator to deliver radical innovation to co-presence, communications, commerce, productivity, sports, media and entertainment,” said Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “As DOCOMO advances the power of its network and technology for tens of millions of customers, its partnership with Magic Leap will help deliver capabilities and experiences never thought possible.”
That pitch has enabled the company to become around. But it also raises questions about whether Magic Leap, which began shipping its headset last year , can make good on its promise, especially as it faces competition from technology giants like Microsoft.
Magic Leap has responded partly by forming strategic and financial bonds with big telecom partners that could introduce its technology to consumers and business customers. Last year, the company struck a partnership with AT&T, which now sells the Magic Leap One in a handful of cities in the United States.
By teaming up with DoCoMo, Magic Leap hopes to serve a similar role for another major market. Beyond the ability to expose more potential customers to the Magic Leap One, a forthcoming gigabit high-speed internet service from DoCoMo could help advance augmented reality applications.
“They’re a forward-looking company,” Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap’s founder and chief executive, said of DoCoMo in an interview. “I think this is quite transformational for us and for the country.”
DoCoMo’s funding is also important for Magic Leap as it competes against deeper-pocketed rivals. Microsoft rolled out the this year, with an eye on capturing the potentially lucrative market for business users, like factory workers.
Mr. Abovitz said any progress would continue to be expensive. “The R&D investments are substantial, but so is the upside,” he said.
He said the company had previously let expectations for its product run wild. “I think our job is to continue to manage expectations,” Mr. Abovitz said. He added that he believed augmented reality could help lay the road for the next generation of the internet.
In a tacit acknowledgment of the costs of its business, Magic Leap will reopen its Series D fund-raising round. Mr. Abovitz said the company was in talks with more potential investors.
One of its current backers is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, whose government has drawn criticism for its role in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr. Abovitz declined to comment on the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
