Augmented reality (AR) startup Magic Leap has said it’s secured a further US$793.5m (€728m, £549m) in new funding, enough to finance its first product – a digital lightfield device which shoots computer-generated images into the user’s eyes.

Differing from market competitors in AR, such as Microsoft’s Hololens, which uses a stereoscopic technique to create the illusion of a three-dimensional image, Magic Leap’s device uses its alternate mixed-reality lightfield to create a world where digital and physical seamlessly blend together.

Based in Dania Beach, Florida, with offices in the US, UK, New Zealand and Israel, the company first hit the headlines in October 2014 when Google revealed that it had invested US$524m (€479.6m, £361.7m) in Magic Leap, despite no-one at the time knowing what the secretive company did. In March 2015, Magic Leap showed-off its first tech demo when its groundbreaking technology used AR to turn the company’s office into a first-person shooter.



The new funding from the Alibaba Group is the latest in a line of big-name investors including Google, Qualcomm Incorporated, Warner Bros, Fidelity Management, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and accounts advised by T.Rowe Price Associates and Wellington Management. Following the latest investment, Magic Leap is now valued at around US$4.5bn (€4.1bn, £3.1bn).

Magic Leap’s next phase of development includes making its device useable for consumers. The company has now entered the pilot production phase and is developing prototypes in Florida which will incorporate its “photonic light chip”. A software development kit for people to create content is also to be released. Magic Leap co-founder and CEO Rony Abovitz has said the technology isn’t “years away”, with the company now entering the production cycle, but that the goal is to enter the market with a fully-formed product rather than a beta version.