Google wants a front row seat to what this company can do

Oct 22, 2014 12:28 GMT  ·  By

Google has taken the big step and pitched in with a big part of the $542 million (€427 million) Series B investment round in the augmented reality startup Magic Leap.

As reported a few days ago, Google was getting ready to make this big investment into Magic Leap, a company that very little is known of.

Magic Leap, a company with headquarters in Florida, was founded in 2011. They’ve developed a platform called Dynamic Digitized Lightfield Signal, which they hope will end up replacing the traditional smartphone screens with an interface perfect for virtual reality content.

There’s also a head-mounted device that the company hasn’t been saying much about. There’s a rumor, however, that the tool detects and tracks the movement of the eyes and projects images to them. The company boasts that it will deliver “cinematic reality,” although very little details are offered beyond this point.

Directly from Google's pockets

The most notable part of this investment is that Google didn’t make the investment via Google Ventures, like it usually does, but rather from the company itself. This has pushed beliefs that Google may hope to create a strategic alignment somewhere down the road, or even to acquire the company and perhaps integrate it into its Google X labs, the place where all crazy Google ideas come from.

Sundar Pichai, Google senior VP of Android, Chrome and Apps, will be serving on Magic Leap’s board of directors. Don Harrison, vice president or corporate development, will also be joining in an observer role.

“We are looking forward to Magic Leap’s new stage of growth, and to seeing how it will shape the future of visual computing,” said Sundar Pichai.

Google isn’t the only one who is chipping in for the company. Qualcomm is also one of the big names that have agreed to use its money to back Magic Leap. Paul E. Jacobs, the company’s executive chairman, will be joining the board as an observer as well.

Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap founder and CEO, said he was honored to have such select companies among the financial backers of his business. He believes that the extra money will help the company deliver on the promise to revolutionize the way people communicate.

“We are excited and honored to have such an extraordinary group of investors to help us bring our vision and products to the world. Magic Leap is going beyond the current perception of mobile computing, augmented reality, and virtual reality. We are transcending all three, and will revolutionize the way people communicate, purchase, learn, share, and play,” said Abovitz.