Launched in 2010, the start-up Magic Leap had managed to raise $ 2.3 billion to develop augmented reality glasses. She had also attracted the attention of big names in the tech world such as Google, Qualcoom and Alibaba thanks to her AR glasses project. Unfortunately, the Magic Leap launched in 2018 did not meet the expected success. They sold only 6,000 copies while the start-up was targeting 100,000 units sold in the first year. Results more than disappointing which had prompted the firm to announce last April that it would lay off nearly a thousand employees. But it seems that the start-up is about to rise from the ashes.
Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz told his employees in a memo that the company has raised $ 350 million from new investors, report Business Insider and The Information. A company active in health would have notably entered the capital of the start-up.
A fundraiser that first allowed the start-up to stop its layoffs. It's hard to know how many employees have already been fired, but for those who remain, their jobs should be guaranteed for some time yet.
A takeover on the horizon
The new fundraising could also allow the start-up to start its “pivot”, that is to say its takeover without restructuring the company. A sale that would be estimated at 10 billion dollars, despite the concerns that the start-up has encountered in recent times. Unless the 350 million dollars raised are used to improve the Magic Leap and restart the business.
Our High-tech file
If the Magic Leap augmented reality glasses had something to attract the public on a technical level, the price at which they were offered did not allow them to face competitors such as Microsoft and its HoloLens headset, more accessible and more efficient.
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- Augmented reality
- Virtual reality
- Technology
- High-Tech
- Bankruptcy
- Start-up
- Microsoft
- New technologies