Snapchat Acquires Augmented Reality Startup Cimagine

By Rahul Sharma

Posted on December 28, 2016

Snap, the company that owns popular messaging app Snapchat is in the headlines for acquiring the Israeli augmented reality company Cimagine Media and the price was allegedly in the bucket of $30 million to $40 million. The acquisition, it seems, actually done to bolster some augmented reality scenes to its app that will come out in the near future. Moreover, with such an acquirement, the Snapchat has also marked its first acquisition in the Middle East country. However, Snap hasn’t confirmed about such move, yet, if the media reports are to be believed, it will be the ninth acquisition made by the company till date.

Cimagine, an Augmented Reality startup first ventured into the technology world in 2012, is well known for introducing true markerless augmented reality technology. Such platform enables users instantly visualize products they willing to purchase in their intended location(like 3D images) through their mobile devices, at the click of a button. With information available, Cimagine currently is working with brands like Coca-Cola, John Lewis, and Shop Direct.

The acquisition would turn the Israel-based Cimagine into Snapchat’s research and development centre in the said country and is expected to rapidly expand its workforce from its current 20 employees, according to the Calcalist financial daily reported on Sunday. It is also reported that the company’s highly-skilled team is possibly the prime reason for such acquisition rather than its technology. Besides, the company’s top talent that includes it’s four-founder, expertise in the field of image processing and computer vision – Ozi Egri, Amiram Avraham, Nir Daube and CEO Yoni Nevo might also be a reason for why the Snapchat has acquired this startup.

Well, as we mentioned above, officials at firms not passed any comment on the acquisition, it is believed that such thing will lead the company’s online campaign with the use of AR platform. This evidently isn’t the first acquisition that has been made by the Snapchat, albeit, it also acquired an ad-tech firm known as Flite, computer vision firm Scene, mobile search app Vurb, and Bitstrips. That last firm which is renowned for personalizing emojis called bitmojis and Snapchat was said to have spent $100 million on that purchase.

Venice, California-based Snapchat is reported to go public as early as March with a valuation approximately of $25 billion. Read more Startup News.

Snapchat Acquires Augmented Reality Startup Cimagine