Snapchat Drops Up To $40M To Buy Cimagine Augmented Reality Platform

Snapchat has wrapped up its very first major acquisition in Israel according to reports. The purchase was of a company that has been around for four years called Cimagine. Cimagine has an augmented reality platform that allows customers to visualize products they want to buy in their locations. According to Calcalist News, Snapchat plunked down $30 – $40 million for the company.

Cimagine isn't a name that most will be familiar with, but the firm has been working with some big brands such as Coca Cola, a furniture retailer called Jerome's in California, and a UK retailer called Shop Direct. Cimagine's platform is intended to help boost the brand's online conversion rates and in-store sales processes.

Snapchat hasn't made any official statements on the purchase just yet, but the assumption is that Snapchat will use the platform to enhance some of its online campaigns. Last summer Snapchat teamed up with Starbucks for Snapchat chilled drinks allowing drinkers to put a lens over their drink and send that image to friends.

The purchase also comes with some of Cimagine's top talent including the four founders of the firm Ozi Egri, Amiram Avraham, Nir Daube and CEO Yoni Nevo. The quartet specializes in computer vision and image processing. Buying the company also gives snapchat a ready to go development center in Israel if it wants to move into the country.

This certainly isn't the first acquisition that Snapchat has made, it purchased an adtech company called Flite, mobile search app Vurb, computer vision firm Seene, and Bitstrips. That last firm makes personalized emojis called bitmojis and Snapchat is said to have spent $100 million on that purchase.

SOURCE: Techcrunch