Pristine, an Austin-based augmented reality startup, has been acquired by Upskill, a Washington D.C.-based AR software startup formerly known as APX Labs. No financial details were provided.
Upskill, which is backed by Boeing, among others, expressed particular interest in Pristine's "EyeSight" product, which provides real-time audio and visual connections through Google Glass or other wearables. The AR software helps connect experts in the office with works in a factory or working remotely at a job site, and it is used by a variety of large clients, including Coca-Cola, Bayer and The Hershey Company.
“Augmented reality is driving incredible productivity results across functional areas in industrial enterprises. Our customers are seeing an average of 32 percent performance improvement from their very first use of Skylight,” Upskill co-founder and CEO Brian Ballard, said in a news release. “There aren’t very many new technologies that can deliver this kind of ‘out of the box’ value creation, which is why adoption of AR technology is accelerating at an incredible pace. This underscores the importance for Upskill to leverage new opportunities that will help us scale and innovate faster than anyone else in the space. The acquisition of Pristine will allow us to do just that.”
Pristine CEO Peter Evans will become executive vice president at Upskill. Pristine had perviously raised a $5.4 million Series A round led by Austin-based S3 Ventures, with participation by Capital Factory and HealthFundr.
Upskill will retain Pristine's Austin office, making it Upskill's third U.S. location. For Pristine, Upskill provides the startup a connection to a ton of new clients like GE, Boeing and Shell as well as integration with Upskill's Skylight product, which also connects workers and experts through augmented reality.
"The need for this type of work solution in enterprises is massive, particularly in organizations with a large field services workforce, where there is a growing gap between demand for skills, and the availability of those skills,” said Peter Evans, CEO of Pristine. “As customers expand the use of AR across their operations, a scalable AR platform with direct integrations to their IT and OT investments becomes more important."
(Image via Upskill's Youtube Page)
