eBay has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Israeli visual search technologies startup Corrigon Ltd.. Financial details about the acquisition were not disclosed but Israeli The Marker is reporting a price of $20 million. Techcrunch suggest that eBay will be paying $20-30 million.
eBay said that upon the closing of the transaction, the Corrigon team will join eBay’s structured data organization and will be based in eBay’s Israeli Development Center in Netanya.
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Corrigon is eBay’s second acquisition in Israel in 2016 following the purchase of Kira Radinsky’s SalesPredict, which uses advanced analytics to predict consumer-buying behavior, for about $40 million.
Corrigon was co-founded in 2008 by Avinoam Omer and Einav Itamar. Avinoam Omer also founded machine learning company Zoomix which acquired by Microsoft.
The company helps identify objects within an image, matching both visual and textual elements to ensure that the image is recognized, correctly classified and best-matched to its corresponding product. eBay says that with more than one billion live listings on its platform, “Corrigon’s expertise and technology will help match the best images to their products so that shoppers can be confident that what they buy is exactly what they see.”
eBay VP and general manager Structured Data Amit Menipaz said, “As we continue to evolve the eBay shopping experience, Corrigon’s technology and expertise will help buyers find the best results when shopping on eBay through experiences that were not possible a year ago, before our investments in structured data. Corrigon represents eBay’s third acquisition in the structured data space this year, further underscoring our commitment to powering deeper inventory insights for our sellers and compelling new user experiences for our buyers.”
Corrigon CEO and cofounder Avinoam Omer said, “Corrigon’s state-of-the art visual search technology enables fine grained product detection within images. We look forward to applying our expertise and technology to eBay’s platform, which has more than a billion product images. Working in partnership with eBay’s structured data team, we will help eBay sellers list more efficiently and eBay buyers find what they are looking for faster in order to increase customer sales conversions.”
