Report: Apple Silently Acquired Israel’s Camerai, Formerly Tipit, a specialist in AR and camera tech

Apple is known for acquiring startups from time to time, especially those that have developed technologies that can help Apple’s products and services. Apparently, Apple had acquired an Israel-based AR and camera technology specialist, Camerai, two years ago. The Cupertino-based tech giant, however, had managed to keep the news regarding the acquisition of Camerai under wraps. But the news broke out earlier today, thanks to a report from an Israeli newspaper, Calcalist.

The publication reveals that Apple had acquired Camerai somewhere between 2018 and 2019 for tens of millions of dollars. Camerai was founded by Jonathan Rimon, who also happened to be the CEO of the company, along with Moty Kosharovsky, Erez Tal, and Aaron Wetzler. Camerai was known as Tipit in its early stages. The company had received almost $5 million in funding from investors like Atooro Fund and SKO Fund. Apple shut down Camerai immediately after acquiring the company. The report from Calcalist claims that employees of Camerai now work at Apple’s R&D team at Herzliya. It is said that almost 1,500 people work at this R&D center.

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Camerai is said to have developed AI technologies that help scene recognition and AR. Reports online reveal that Camerai had developed a technology that can detect different objects in a scene and outline these objects with precision so that these objects can be used with a different background, mostly in AR scenes. It is being said that Camerai’s technologies have already been integrated into Apple’s product. Apple’s iOS 13 and iOS 14 came with significant upgrades in the camera and AR department. It is possible that Camerai’s technologies have been used in these upgrades.

[Source: Calcalist]