Heavily funded augmented reality startup Magic Leap Inc. has raised yet another round of financing, this time a $280 million investment from NTT Docomo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile carrier.

The companies said in the funding announcement today that they plan to establish a broad partnership focused on the Japanese market. As part of the deal, NTT will become Magic Leap’s exclusive telecommunications partner in the Island nation. The carrier intends to develop media content and unspecified “value-added services” for the startup’s platform.

Magic Leap competes in the augmented reality market with a $2,290 system dubbed the Magic Leap One. It’s a bundle of a pair of goggles, a handheld controller and a small wearable computer responsible for rendering the content that appears in front of the user’s eyes. The Lightpack, as the device is known, uses a Tegra X2 mobile graphics card from Nvidia Corp. for processing.

Magic Leap developed the system with both consumer and business use cases in mind. The applications available on the Magic Leap One range from video games to professional programs such as Onshape, a three-dimensional modeling tool for industrial engineers.

Building an ecosystem of third-party software solutions will be essential for the startup to drive adoption of the system, especially in the business market. Its main competitor in this segment is Microsoft Corp.’s $3,500 HoloLens mixed reality headset for enterprises. The technology giant recently introduced a new iteration of the device with double the field of view of the original and a dedicated artificial intelligence chip.

The cash injection from NTT Docomo will enable Magic Leap to step up its expansion efforts amid the rising competition from rivals. Rony Abovitz, the startup’s chief executive, told the New York Times that he plans to reopen its previous Series D round in a bid to secure yet more funding for operations. So far, Magic Leap has received a total of $2.6 billion from investors. 

Photo: Magic Leap