The landscape for AR in the first half of 2018.
The landscape for AR in the first half of 2018.
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AR companies have grown 50% since the end of 2017

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

The augmented reality ecosystem continued to grow in the first half of 2018, with the number of AR companies having grown 50 percent to 290 since the end of 2017, according to investor The Venture Reality Fund.

Propped up by Magic Leap’s impressive and almost crazy ability to raise money, the AR market has continued to prosper from steady new investment. But Tipatat Chennavasin, general partner at The VR Fund, said in an interview with GamesBeat that investment activity grew across all sectors of the AR landscape in the first half, even if you factor out Magic Leap’s ability to raise so much money.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.