The Israeli image recognition for retail goods company has acquired a US company with a platform that provides it with access to consumers.
Israeli image recognition company for retail and consumer goods Trax has acquired US startup Shopkick for $200 million. Shopkick has developed a platform for shopping rewards for customers.
Shopkick is owned by SK Planet, a subsidiary of Korean company SK Telecom, which bought Shopkick for $200 million in 2014.
Trax cofounder and chief commercial officer Dror Feldheim told "Globes," "As a company we do full digitalization for stores, brands and consumers and this company provides us with access to consumers. Many of the things that we are doing today with image recognition technology that serve us within stores, we will provide to Shopkick that will continue to work independently with consumers in the US."
He stresses that Shopkick's 150 employees in the US will continue to work as a unit independent of Trax, which after this acquisition has 700 employees in 50 countries, 250 of them in Israel. Headquartered in Singapore, Trax will hire 100 more people in Israel over the next year, mainly in the computer vision and algorithms sector, said Feldheim.
Trax is currently raising a $100 million financing round at a company value of $1.1 billion. Feldheim says the financing round will be closed soon and will provide funds for three acquisitions: LenzTech Co., a Beijing computer vision technology service provider, Shopkick, and a European competitor, which Feldheim says will be announced soon.
Founded in 2010 by CEO Joel Bar-El and Feldheim, the company has raised $235 million to date, including a $125 million financing round last July. Investors include Warburg Pincus, Boyu Capital, and DC Thomson and GIC Pte.
Bar-El told "Bloomberg" last month that Trax expects to conduct an IPO in 18-24 months.