Alibaba Acquires Israeli Startup Infinity AR

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group acquired Israeli startup Infinity AR for an undisclosed sum, Israeli business daily Globes reported on Sunday.

Globes said “market sources” estimated that Alibaba paid over $10 million the AR software company which develops augmented reality and mixed reality systems for the medical field, training, and games.

In 2016, Alibaba led an $18 million financing round in Infinity AR, in a restructuring initiative that made Alibaba the startup’s largest single stakeholder with 22 percent of shares.

According to a statement by Infinity AR, it will join Alibaba’s Israel Machine Vision Laboratory, part of the $15 billion Alibaba DAMO (discovery, adventure, momentum, and outlook) Academy initiative to build tech centers across the world.

“Alibaba’s expertise in turning technologies into next-generation products will be a great platform for the future technologies of computer vision, AR and AI,” said Motti Kushnir, Infinity AR’s CEO and co-founder.

Professor Lihi Zelnik-Manor, head of the Laboratory said “Alibaba is delighted to be working with Infinity AR as one team after three years of partnership. The talented team brings unique know-how in sensor fusion, computer vision and navigation technologies. We look forward to exploring these leading technologies and offering additional benefits to customers, partners and developers.”

Infinity AR was founded in 2012 by Kushnir and Matan Protter,  who serves as the company’s CTO, according to Start-Up Nation Central’s Finder database.