Snapchat acquired Cimagine this past week in a deal valued between $30 million and $40 million, according to reports from Calcalist News. Cimagine is a four-year-old startup that focuses on augmented reality.
The company is a natural fit for Snapchat and lets consumers visualize products.
Snapchat’s intentions for the company remain unclear, but Cimagine’s technology could be used to visualize products in a room or office. The company utilizes a mobile, cloud-based platform. Coca Cola is one of the company’s current clients.
Snapchat will keep Cimagine’s four co-founders on board. The company’s talent specializes in image processing and computer vision. Augmented reality functionality can be hooked into Snapchat’s platform to allow users to further edit their pictures by adding objects into the mix.
The company aims to become a “camera” powerhouse.
Snapchat’s acquisitions in 2016 align the company for growth. The company launched Spectacles in September, which is its first transition into hardware. The glasses allow for a first-person action view of what the user is seeing.
Bitstrips was purchased by Snap this year to include personalized emojis into the company’s service.
The company acquired at least five known companies this year, including Obvious Engineering. Vurb, a mobile discovery app, is a major acquisition for the company, and is valued around $110 million. The acquisition’s purpose remains unclear, but is speculated to allow Snapchat to incorporate third-party apps into their platform.
Flite, a company that brings intelligent ads into the mix with 360-degree videos was also acquired by Snapchat. The company’s talent will remain during the acquisition and allows Snapchat to offer ads on their mobile platform.
Snapchat’s acquisitions allow the company to work on new products and add depth to their team with specialized engineers. The company maintains a user base of over 150 million active users. Snapchat’s parent company filed for a $25 billion IPO in November.
