Alibaba Acquires Israeli VR Startup Infinity AR

Infinity Augmented Reality the Israeli virtual reality startup, has been acquired by Alibaba for an estimated payment of over $10 million. Alibaba and InfinityAR have had a strategic partnership since 2016. Back then, Alibaba led an $18 million financing round in a restructuring initiative that made Alibaba the startup’s largest single stakeholder with 22 percent of shares. The two have also collaborated on various augmented reality, computer vision and artificial intelligence projects.

Infinity AR was founded in 2012 by Kushnir and Matan Protter, the startup’s augmented glasses platform enables developers in a wide range of industries to integrate AR into their apps. InfinityAR’s products include software for ODMs and OEMs and a SDK plug-in for 3D engines. InfinityAR’s research and development team are expected to begin working out of Alibaba’s Israel Machine Laboratory as part of the $15 billion Alibaba DAMO (discovery, adventure, momentum, and outlook) Academy initiative to build tech centers across the world, in the aim to eventually serve two billion customers and creating 100 million jobs by 2036.

Alibaba already has a foothold in the Israeli tech ecosystem, after buying the assets of QR code startup Visualead Ltd. and in 2018, took part in a $30 million round of funding for auto computer vision startup Nexar Ltd. and led a $26.4 million funding round in data analytics startup SQream Technologies. Furthermore, Alibaba’s founder and CEO Jack Ma met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in May and received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University during the same visit to Israel.