08.13.21
Beauty brand Il Makiage spent $40 million to acquire Voyage81, an artificial intelligence startup. The acquisition of the imaging software company comes as Il Makiage gets ready to launch two brands in the wellness space.
“For the past two years, we have been searching for computational imaging solutions that can work in beauty and wellness to further advance our existing AI capabilities," said Il Makiage CEO Oran Holzman. "I have met dozens of computer vision startups but could not find a technology that can fit our industry and was strong enough to fulfill our goals. Bringing on Voyage81’s patented technology and exceptional team to our tech and data science departments is a huge win for our company's future, our users and the industry at-large."
Voyage81 has a proprietary physics-based algorithm that converts images taken with a camera or mobile phone into higher-resolution images that depict a wider range of colors. Voyage81’s software is capable of mapping and analyzing skin and hair features, detecting facial blood flows, and creating melanin and hemoglobin maps from a simple smartphone camera photo. The technology, combined with Il Makiage's current AI algorithms, will leverage users' personal smartphone cameras to provide unparalleled online matching capabilities to users of Il Makiage and its upcoming homegrown digital beauty and wellness brands.
The acquisition comes as Il Makiage gets ready to launch two wellness brands. Company executives are rightfully bullish on the future—Il Makiage's sales have more than doubled every year since its 2018 launch. Sales are expected to top $250 million this year. The online-only cosmetics maker has offices in New York and Tel Aviv. As reported in Happi, online sales of fast-moving consumer goods, including beauty products, have soared during the pandemic.
Voyage81’s computer vision capabilities and team (half of whom hold PhDs) will be integrated within Il Makiage's data science capabilities and its matching algorithms to serve the company's tens of millions of users and customers. Voyage81 founders, Niv Price, Dr. Boaz Arad and Omer Shwartz, will take leadership roles in Il Makiage. Price will serve as CTO, Dr. Arad will serve as chief vision officer, while Shwartz will serve as VP-information security. All three will also continue to lead Voyage81 as CEO, CTO and Software Lead.
“For the past two years, we have been searching for computational imaging solutions that can work in beauty and wellness to further advance our existing AI capabilities," said Il Makiage CEO Oran Holzman. "I have met dozens of computer vision startups but could not find a technology that can fit our industry and was strong enough to fulfill our goals. Bringing on Voyage81’s patented technology and exceptional team to our tech and data science departments is a huge win for our company's future, our users and the industry at-large."
Voyage81 has a proprietary physics-based algorithm that converts images taken with a camera or mobile phone into higher-resolution images that depict a wider range of colors. Voyage81’s software is capable of mapping and analyzing skin and hair features, detecting facial blood flows, and creating melanin and hemoglobin maps from a simple smartphone camera photo. The technology, combined with Il Makiage's current AI algorithms, will leverage users' personal smartphone cameras to provide unparalleled online matching capabilities to users of Il Makiage and its upcoming homegrown digital beauty and wellness brands.
The acquisition comes as Il Makiage gets ready to launch two wellness brands. Company executives are rightfully bullish on the future—Il Makiage's sales have more than doubled every year since its 2018 launch. Sales are expected to top $250 million this year. The online-only cosmetics maker has offices in New York and Tel Aviv. As reported in Happi, online sales of fast-moving consumer goods, including beauty products, have soared during the pandemic.
Voyage81’s computer vision capabilities and team (half of whom hold PhDs) will be integrated within Il Makiage's data science capabilities and its matching algorithms to serve the company's tens of millions of users and customers. Voyage81 founders, Niv Price, Dr. Boaz Arad and Omer Shwartz, will take leadership roles in Il Makiage. Price will serve as CTO, Dr. Arad will serve as chief vision officer, while Shwartz will serve as VP-information security. All three will also continue to lead Voyage81 as CEO, CTO and Software Lead.