Magic Leap – Company Profile

Magic Leap is a leading player in mixed reality and augmented reality (AR) industry. The company is headquartered in Plantation, Florida. Magic Leap’s primary objective is to leverage augmented reality tools to bridge the physical gaps that exist in the real world. With tools developed by Magic Leap, users can interact with other team members in any part of the world. Magic Leap’s AR platform is currently being utilized across various sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, defense and public sector.

History:

Magic Leap is the brainchild of Rony Abovitz, who comes across as an individual with a great flair for pioneering ideas. Sometime before 2010, he became fixated with the idea to develop an augmented reality headset. He believed that his idea will revolutionize the way in which humans interact with each other and other things in the world.

In addition to being a geek, Abovitz also knew how to convince investors. It was his confidence and sales skills that left no doubts in the minds of investors. After its consumer-centric mixed reality tool did not get the desired response, Magic Leap is currently focusing on enterprise tools and solutions.

Funding:

Magic Leap is one of the well-funded startups in the world. It has received investments worth USD 3 billion via ten rounds of funding. Some of the top investors include AT&T, Alibaba Group, Fidelity Investments, eBay, Google, JP Morgan, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, T. Rowe Price, Temasek, Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and Wellington Management.

Acquisitions:

With Magic Leap’s unique product and business idea, it required the necessary assistance from other players in tech, computing, 3D imaging, mobile gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. As developing all these capabilities in-house would be hugely challenging and could have taken several years, Magic Leap took the inorganic route to acquire companies that already had such expertise. Some of the acquisitions made by Magic Leap include Mimesys, Computes, Fuzzycube Software, Dacuda, Alucid Technologies, Virtroid, and NorthBit.

Competitors:

The augmented reality industry is expected to grow significantly in the future. This is why a number of startups have begun operations in this space. Magic Leap competes with other players in virtual reality and augmented reality industry such as Atheer, Inc., Vuzix, Nreal, Oculus, Avegant, Meta, DigiLens, WaveOptics, and Daqri.

About the founder:

Magic Leap was founded by Rony Abovitz in 2010. He had served as the CEO of the company till May 2020. He decided to step down after the company started facing financial issues. However, Abovitz continues to pursue his interest in tech enabled virtualization on a personal level. He is currently working on an entirely new idea that he claims will have the potential to transform this world.

Rony Abovitz had studied at University of Miami from where he completed his masters in biomedical engineering. Prior to founding Magic Leap, he had worked with companies such as Z-KAT, Inc. (co-founder), and Mako Surgical Corp. Abovitz currently serves as the CEO of Sun and Thunder, a new company that he founded in August 2020. He also works as a senior advisor for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and strategic advisor for ForSight Robotics.