More than a year ago, Apple acquired the Israeli startup Camerai for tens of millions of dollars. The acquisition kept secret as always when the American giant purchases a small company.
According to financial website Calcalist, the company’s technology has become a significant part of all Apple cameras with an emphasis on video technologies and augmented reality
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At the Warren Buffett Hathaway Berkshire’s last Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company acquired 25 companies some year, most of them were small.
Calcalist has learned that Camerai’s technology has become a significant part of all Apple cameras with an emphasis on video and augmented reality (AR). The company’s founders maintained secrecy throughout its years of existence, and even after its sale they maintained media silence and refrained from telling that they work under Apple or reporting its sale.
According to the IVC database, the company raised a total of about $3 million, among others from the ATOORO Foundation, the angel group Spinach and angels. The company’s founders did not respond to Calcalist’s request.
Founded in 2014 under the name Tipit (rebranded as Camerai in 2018) by Yonatan Rimon, Moti Kosharovsky, Aharon Wetzler, and Erez Tal, Camerai employed 13 employees in Tel Aviv. Most of them joined Apple’s offices in Herzliya after the acquisition. The company has developed camera technology that includes advanced capabilities of computer vision and deep learning.
Its platform has allowed app and software developers to create augmented reality graphics and image processing without the need for technical knowledge or code writing.
Apple has a development center in Haifa and Herzliya and currently employs more than 1,500 people in Israel, leading by Roni Friedman.
Apple’s acquisitions in Israel include:
Anubit for $400 million (December 2011), which developed a chip that specializes in optimizing flash memories using unique signal processing technology. The chip was integrated into iPhone and iPad and MacBook Air computers. Freemasons for $ 345 million (November 2013) a developer of a system for translating body movements into computer games and was known as the company behind Microsoft’s Kinect game controller. Lynx (2015), a developer of small cameras. Realface (2017) – a developer of technology for secure identification through face recognition for digital applications, and Camerai (2019) –
