Escher Reality

Escher Reality was an augmented reality and computer vision startup founded in 2016 by Ross Finman (CEO) and Diana Hu (CTO), with roots in the MIT Sandbox program. It built cloud backend services for cross-platform, persistent, multi-user mobile AR — shared experiences that neither Apple ARKit nor Google ARCore offered at the time — letting multiple users interact with the same virtual objects anchored to the real world. The company raised roughly $3 million and was based in Sunnyvale, California. In February 2018 Escher Reality was acquired by Niantic (creator of Pokemon GO); its team and technology were folded into the Niantic Real World Platform (now Lightship), and the standalone company and its developer/SDK offering were discontinued. This API Evangelist profile is retained as a historical record; there is no independent, active API or developer surface to enrich.

Escher Reality is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Augmented Reality, Computer Vision, Mobile, and Gaming.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

6.8/100 minimal ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

0 APIs

CompanyAugmented RealityComputer VisionMobileGamingSDKAcquiredDefunct

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 6.8/100 · minimal

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 0.0 / 20

Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.0 / 13

Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 6.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

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Source (apis.yml)

aid: escher-reality
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/escher-reality.png
name: Escher Reality
description: Escher Reality was an augmented reality and computer vision startup founded in 2016 by Ross Finman (CEO) and
  Diana Hu (CTO), with roots in the MIT Sandbox program. It built cloud backend services for cross-platform, persistent, multi-user
  mobile AR — shared experiences that neither Apple ARKit nor Google ARCore offered at the time — letting multiple users interact
  with the same virtual objects anchored to the real world. The company raised roughly $3 million and was based in Sunnyvale,
  California. In February 2018 Escher Reality was acquired by Niantic (creator of Pokemon GO); its team and technology were
  folded into the Niantic Real World Platform (now Lightship), and the standalone company and its developer/SDK offering were
  discontinued. This API Evangelist profile is retained as a historical record; there is no independent, active API or developer
  surface to enrich.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/escher-reality/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- uncork-capital
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
x-status: acquired
x-acquired-by: niantic
x-acquired-date: '2018-02-01'
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-19'
tags:
- Company
- Augmented Reality
- Computer Vision
- Mobile
- Gaming
- SDK
- Acquired
- Defunct
apis: []
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence