Snap Inc, the parent company behind the popular Snapchat app, has acquired an augmented reality company Cimagine Media for an estimated $30-40 million, Israel's Calcalist News reported on Sunday. Cimagine Media is a four-year-old startup, which helps retailers and consumers visualise products that they are planning to purchase by placing them in their home before purchasing. All you need is a mobile or tablet to see whether a piece of furniture fits into the place. However, Cimagine’s solution is little different from Google’s Project Tango, where you need a compatible smartphone (say, a Lenovo Phab 2 Pro) that requires extra hardware, sensors and a specialised camera. Cimagine’s technology can work with any smartphone or tablet. Cimagine already has partnerships with a number of big-ticket brands such as Shop Direct, Coca-Cola and John Levis. Venturebeat notes that the move could be a big push for Snapchat to get into e-commerce through its app. Also read: Snapchat’s Snap Inc files for IPO: Spectacles to Lenses, top things to note Neither firm had confirmed acquisitions, but Snapchat’s parent company which is called Snap Inc., is planning an IPO next year that could help the company raise anywhere between $20 billion - $25 billion. The acquisition of Cimagine Media hints at Snapchat’s growing ambitions among the social media networks. Snapchat currently has 150 million daily active users, which puts it ahead of Twitter. That growth rate is mind boggling for any social network, but Snapchat is entering new territories, as in case of the Spectacles, which have video-recording capabilities and can created 10-seconds clips that one can directly upload to Snapchat or their smartphone.
