Discord Acquires AR Startup Ubiquity6 - Expanding into Spatial Computing

Ubiquity6 Acquired by Discord

Ubiquity6, an augmented reality startup, has been acquired by Discord, a leading gaming chat application. This follows a significant pivot undertaken by Ubiquity6 earlier in the year, and after securing substantial investment.

Funding and Initial Vision

The AR company had successfully raised $37.5 million through funding rounds with prominent investors. These included Benchmark, First Round, Kleiner Perkins, and Google’s Gradient Ventures. Investors were optimistic about Ubiquity6’s potential to create a consumer platform for augmented reality content.

A $27 million Series B funding round was publicly disclosed in October 2018, representing the most recent known investment.

Acquisition Details and Prior Challenges

The financial terms of the acquisition have not been revealed. However, Ubiquity6 had seemingly discontinued many of its initial products in recent months. This indicated potential difficulties in attracting a broad user base for its offerings.

Early Efforts with Displayland

Founded in 2017, Ubiquity6 initially aimed to become the primary platform for mobile users to discover and interact with augmented reality content. In late 2019, the company launched Displayland.

Displayland was designed to gamify the process of 3D scanning real-world environments using a smartphone camera.

Mobile AR Market Struggles

Despite significant investment from major technology companies like Apple and Google, the mobile augmented reality market has largely failed to achieve widespread adoption. This presented a considerable challenge to Ubiquity6’s growth.

In early 2020, Anjney Midha, the CEO of Ubiquity6, reported the company employed approximately 65 individuals.

Pivot to Backyard and Subsequent Discontinuation

In recent months, Ubiquity6 underwent a substantial strategic shift. The company moved away from augmented reality entirely, focusing instead on developing a desktop platform for remote online party games.

This new platform, known as Backyard, was created to cater to the social habits that emerged during the pandemic. However, with the easing of restrictions, Backyard was discontinued this week following the acquisition announcement.

Future Integration with Discord

In a statement released on Medium, Anjney Midha suggested that Ubiquity6’s augmented reality technology may not be directly integrated into Discord.

“Our mission at Ubiquity6 has always been to unlock new ways for people to connect through shared experiences,” Midha stated. “Joining Discord today allows us to accelerate that mission — Ubiquity6’s team, Backyard product and multiplayer technology will be integrated into Discord.”

The acquisition focuses on leveraging Ubiquity6’s team and multiplayer capabilities within the Discord ecosystem.