Augmented reality (AR) glasses maker Nreal raised US$60 million in its Series C+ led by Alibaba, which joins rival Chinese tech giants Tencent and ByteDance in a race into the metaverse.
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Fast facts
- The Chinese AR device manufacturer has stood out among Chinese AR startups, with its latest round raising its 12-month funding to US$200 million.
- Nreal said in a press release that it plans to use its fresh funds for content and app development, as well as domestic and global expansions.
- AR and virtual reality (VR) headsets are slated to play major roles in the metaverse, with Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft already controlling large chunks of the market share, as the industry waits for Apple to make its highly anticipated VR/AR device announcement.
- Chinese tech giant ByteDance acquired a VR device maker in August 2021, while Tencent revealed its plans to do so in January 2022.
See related article: Foxconn’s Taiwan subsidiary receives investment from Google for metaverse projects