Infinity Augmented Reality
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| Infinity Augmented Reality | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Industry | Augmented reality software |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Moshe Hogeg |
| Headquarters | Petah Tikva, Israel (later Ramat Gan, Israel) |
| Notable Personnel | Motti Kushnir (CEO), Matan Protter (CTO), Moshe Hogeg (chairman), Enon Landenberg (president) |
| Products | Augmented reality software platform and SDKs for AR glasses |
| Parent | Alibaba Group (from 2019) |
| Website | http://www.infinityar.com |
Infinity Augmented Reality, also known as InfinityAR, was an Israeli developer of augmented reality software for smart glasses and other wearable devices. Its platform used computer vision algorithms with ordinary passive stereo cameras, instead of active depth sensors, to map a user's surroundings and place 3D content in them.[1][2] The company supplied the tracking technology for the Lumus DK-50 developer glasses shown at CES 2016.[3]
The business grew out of a Nevada corporation quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, formerly a life settlements company, which renamed itself Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. in 2013 and went private in 2015.[1][4] Alibaba Group led its 2016 funding round and acquired the company in March 2019, moving its research team into Alibaba's machine vision laboratory in Israel.[5] Alibaba closed that Tel Aviv development center in June 2022.[6]
History
Corporate origins (2006-2013)
The US parent company was incorporated in Nevada on 7 September 2006 as Shimmer Gold, Inc. In 2010 it was renamed Absolute Life Solutions, Inc. and traded under the symbol ALSO.OB; from 2010 until 15 November 2012 it bought life settlement contracts. It formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Infinity Augmented Reality, LLC, in May 2012 to develop augmented reality applications, and on 26 February 2013 it formalized a services arrangement with Infinity Advanced Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company that developed applications for its AR work. That agreement was terminated effective 30 June 2013.[1]
Effective 7 March 2013 the company changed its name to Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. and merged the LLC into itself. On 30 June 2013 it formed an Israeli subsidiary, Infinity Augmented Reality Israel Ltd., whose offices were in Petah Tikva.[1] Globes later named Moshe Hogeg as the founder and gave 2012 as the founding year;[7] TechCrunch and Calcalist gave 2013.[5][8] Company filings list Hogeg, then chief executive of the photo and video sharing platform Mobli, as chairman of the board from October 2012.[1]
Management and development (2013-2015)
Enon Landenberg, a co-founder of the Israeli interactive advertising agency E-Dologic, became president and chief executive on 30 May 2013. Ori Inbar, the founder of AugmentedReality.org, joined the board in September 2013.[1] Motti Kushnir, who had founded the 3D sensing startup PlaygroundAR in 2013, joined as chief operating officer on 29 December 2013 and succeeded Landenberg as chief executive on 1 April 2014; Landenberg stayed on as president. Matan Protter, previously computer vision director at Mobli, became chief technology officer of the Israeli subsidiary on 1 January 2014.[1] Globes reported in 2019 that Kushnir and Protter joined the company after it had begun working as an open platform for mobile AR app developers, and that they had managed it since 2014,[7] while Globes in 2016 described both as co-founders, and Calcalist in 2019 called Kushnir a co-founder.[9][8] As of 31 August 2014 the company had six full-time employees, including those of the Israeli subsidiary.[1]
In February 2015 the company agreed with its debenture holders and major stockholders to convert 7,793,543 US dollars of debentures, together with warrants, into Series A preferred stock, and to have certain holders assume liabilities left from the former life settlement business.[10] On 6 April 2015 it signed a private placement of 1,250,000 US dollars in convertible notes with Singulariteam Fund, Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund and the Japanese company Sun Corporation, who agreed to invest a further 3,750,000 US dollars in Series B preferred stock once the stock could be created.[11] The Times of Israel reported the deal as a 5 million US dollar round intended to fund devices for the Japanese market, where Sun Corporation was active in pachinko gaming.[2] The same report said InfinityAR had won the 2015 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation Leadership.[2]
Going private (2015)
At a special meeting on 5 August 2015, stockholders approved a 1-for-101 reverse stock split followed immediately by a 101-for-1 forward split. Holders of record with fewer than 101 shares were cashed out at 0.15 US dollars per share.[12] The split took effect on 6 November 2015.[13] On 18 November 2015 the company filed a Form 15 to end its SEC registration, reporting 59 holders of record.[4]
Lumus DK-50 and Alibaba investment (2016)
At CES 2016 the Israeli optics maker Lumus showed its DK-50 developer glasses. Tom's Guide reported a 40-degree field of view, 720p resolution per eye, Android on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and dual stereo cameras with an inertial measurement unit for real-time mapping and tracking; Lumus's press material credited "InfinityAR marker-less tracking". The kit was aimed at developers at a price of about 3,000 US dollars.[3] Display Daily described the kit as combining the Lumus light engine with simultaneous localization and mapping developed by InfinityAR.[14] According to Globes, this developer version launched in January 2016, and Kushnir had said the software would first be used for training, such as displaying aircraft engines for airlines, before casual games.[9]
In November 2016 Globes reported that Alibaba was investing 15 million US dollars and Sun Corporation 3 million US dollars, an 18 million US dollar round. Before it, the company had raised 7.2 million US dollars in total.[9][15] Reports of the terms differ: Globes reported in 2016 that Alibaba's 15 million US dollars bought a 25 percent stake, reflecting a value of 60 million US dollars after the money,[9] while its 2019 report said the 18 million US dollars bought 22 percent of the company at an 80 million US dollar valuation after the money.[7] TechCrunch described the round as a Series C led by Alibaba Group, after which the two companies worked together on AR, computer vision and AI projects.[5]
Acquisition by Alibaba (2019)
The acquisition was announced in March 2019, with terms not disclosed; TechCrunch reported it on 24 March.[5][8] Globes cited market sources estimating a price of more than 10 million US dollars and said the company had 25 employees at its Ramat Gan offices.[7] The research and development team moved to Alibaba's Israel Machine Laboratory, part of the Alibaba DAMO Academy, headed by Lihi Zelnik-Manor. She said: "Alibaba is delighted to be working with InfinityAR as one team after three years of partnership," and described the team as bringing "unique knowhow in sensor fusion, computer vision and navigation technologies."[5]
On 26 June 2022 Alibaba told employees that it was closing its development center in Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers, which was attached to the DAMO Academy and worked on AI, robotics and machine vision. Globes described the center as set up in 2017 following the acquisitions of the Israeli startups Visualead and InfinityAR. About 60 engineers and researchers were laid off, and Globes reported that the founders of the acquired startups had already left the center.[6]
Technology
The company's 2014 annual report described a platform of computer vision algorithms meant to run on mobile or wearable devices with two-dimensional stereoscopic cameras, indoors and outdoors. The company claimed the platform would need only one tenth of the power consumption of existing AR solutions, and that it would extract and digitize the physical scene and provide a hand-controlled natural user interface. It was developing three SDKs for application developers and device makers, and planned per-seat SDK licensing with a freemium tier, along with partnerships with original design and hardware manufacturers.[1]
The Times of Israel reported in 2015 that the system used two passive cameras viewing a scene from different points, with algorithms that added depth and accounted for light and shadow, instead of 3D depth sensors that actively project light; Kushnir said scanning with such sensors would use a lot of processing power and drain the battery. The company did not plan to build devices itself; it intended to license the platform to developers and manufacturers, with gaming, medical research and education as target uses.[2] TechCrunch later described its products as software for ODMs and OEMs and an SDK plug-in for 3D engines, aimed at developers in retail, gaming and medicine.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2014". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2014-11-26. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390014008617/f10k2014_infinity.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 David Shamah (2015-04-09). "InfinityAR raises money, and prospects, for augmented reality revolution". The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/infinityar-raises-money-and-prospects-for-augmented-reality-revolution/. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Avram Piltch (2016-01-08). "New Augmented Reality Goggles More Immersive Than HoloLens". Tom's Guide. https://www.tomsguide.com/us/lumus-dk-50-augmented-reality-glasses,news-22103.html. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Form 15 (Certification and Notice of Termination of Registration)". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-11-18. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390015008873/f1512g1115_infinityaugment.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Catherine Shu (2019-03-24). "Alibaba acquires Israeli startup Infinity Augmented Reality". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/24/alibaba-acquires-israeli-vr-startup-infinity-augmented-reality/. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Assaf Gilead (2022-06-27). "Alibaba shuts Israel development center, lays off 60". Globes. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-1001416424. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Yasmin Yablonko (2019-03-24). "Alibaba buys Israeli augmented reality co InfinityAR". Globes. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-alibaba-buys-israeli-augmented-reality-co-infinityar-1001279222. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Adi Pick (2019-03-24). "Alibaba Buys AR Software Company InfinityAR". CTech by Calcalist. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3758861,00.html. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Gali Weinreb (2016-11-01). "Infinity Augmented Reality raises $15m from Alibaba". Globes. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-infinity-augmented-reality-raises-15m-from-alibaba-1001158551. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K), February 2, 2015". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-02-05. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390015000717/f8k020215_infinityaugment.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K), April 6, 2015". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-04-08. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390015002525/f8k040615_infinityaugment.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K), August 5, 2015". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-08-10. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390015005864/f8k080515_infinityaugmen.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ "Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K), November 5, 2015". SEC EDGAR. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-11-06. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1421538/000121390015008236/f8k110615_infinityaugmented.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ Norbert Hildebrand (2017-12-06). "Quanta Announces Partnership with Lumus and Infinity AR". Display Daily. https://displaydaily.com/?p=56953. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
- ↑ Thierry Heles (2016-11-07). "Infinity AR rejoins private market reality". Global Venturing. https://globalventuring.com/infinity-ar-rejoins-private-market-reality. Retrieved 2026-10-21.