NexTech Closes "Game-Changing" Acquisition of Threedy.AI Giving the Company New Augmented Reality Technology to Employ in Global Shopping Sites

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

In a move the company is referring to as “transformative,” Nextech AR Solutions Corp. NEXCF NTAR NTAR (FSE: N29), a leading provider of augmented reality (AR) experience technologies and services, has acquired  Threedy.ai, Inc. The NexTech purchase of Threedy closed June 25, 2021, in an all-stock transaction valued at $9.5 million. 

“This deal is transformative for NexTech and gives us the key to the augmented reality kingdom,” said NexTech CEO Evan Gappelberg.  “This deal opens up the floodgates for NexTech and the industry because right now, the way people develop AI models is to spend hours modeling from scratch or modifying existing models. Most companies don’t have enough manpower to do this at scale. This is a true game-changer for e-commerce businesses and product manufacturers alike, and for the more than 100 million and growing consumers shopping with AR online and in stores today who are driving the mass adoption of augmented reality in everyday life.”

Nextech, based in Vancouver, B.C., develops and operates AR platforms that transport 3D product visualizations, human holograms and 360° portals to its audiences, altering e-commerce, digital advertising, hybrid virtual events (events held in a digital format blended with in-person attendance) and learning and training experiences.

The acquisition helps bolster NexTech’s work with its Fortune 500 clients, including Amazon AMZN, ViacomCBS VIACA, Johnson & Johnson JNJ, Bell Canada, UNESCO, Dell Technologies DELL, Luxottica, Vulcan Inc. VULMF, Boehringer Ingelheim, TEDx, Grundfos and Arch Insurance.

Threedy, based in Silicon Valley, California, was formed by ex-Apple computer vision engineers who developed a model which scales to 1,000s of 3D models per week. The company is building a genuinely disruptive end-to-end solution around its model creation technology for the AR industry. 

“On every Shopify SHOP and Amazon site, you just drop the code, and it scrapes the site for images and obtains measurements, giving you a 3D asset and QR code. You don’t need an app. It’s magic. These guys have cracked the code,” added Gappelberg.  

Through a simple JavaScript tag integration, product photos are automatically onboarded and 3D models are created for each product through AI to be hosted onto Threedy’s cloud. The 3D visualizations are then served to client properties using web AR/3D, all within a single integrated platform.  For a better look at the technology, click here. 

“Retailers including Kohl's KSS, Pier1 and KMart Australia are already using Threedy’s technology to offer AR shopping experiences at scale and now together with Nextech, we will create a unified, scalable 3D content creation engine for all our AR solutions,” said Nima Sarshar, CEO of Threedy. 

Security is a core feature of NexTech, which reported a breakthrough in security with the help of Fastly FSLY, an edge computing company. By bringing token authentication to the edge, the technology dramatically enhances security and performance, essential for the company’s client collaboration.  

For more information on NexTech AR, visit www.nextechar.com.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.