Pokemon Go creator Niantic valued at $9 billion after Coatue's investment

FILE PHOTO: John Hanke, creator of Pokemon Go and Chief Executive Officer of Niantic gestures during his keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hanna

(Reuters) - Niantic Inc, the augmented reality (AR) platform behind Pokemon Go, raised $300 million from hedge fund Coatue at a valuation of $9 billion, the company said in a blog post coatue on Monday.

The company, spun off from Alphabet Inc's Google in 2015 and led by former Google executive John Hanke, plans to used the funds to expand its recently launched Lightship platform to help developers with their AR creations and build their visions for "the Real-World Metaverse".