Snap quietly acquired Amsterdam-based 3D scanning studio Th3rd in the second quarter of last year. At the time, the company was looking to beef up his AR-powered commerce ambitions. A company spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that his four-man team at Dutch-based Th3rd has joined his Snap as part of the acquisition. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.
Founded in 2014, Th3rd specializes in creating high-quality digital twins of people and products, providing a way for brands and retailers to digitize their product catalogs at scale. After being selected as an Adidas Accelerator in Europe, the company has worked with retailers to digitize more than 2,500 shoes.
Snap declined to share how it incorporated Th3rd’s capabilities into its own company, but the startup’s tech has been used to power Snap’s AR projects, including newly launched products for the brand. I know it’s being used. Yesterday, Snap announced it would start offering its AR tools to enterprise customers. The new SaaS product offers a range of features such as AR try-on and fit and size recommendation technology to help brands take advantage of AR technology. Brands can incorporate these AR features directly into their apps and websites, Snap said.
The company has invested in AR-powered commerce in recent years and is building a platform to leverage the technology. In April 2022, the company introduced a tool that transforms a retailer’s photo into his 3D asset and launched an AR fashion and virtual try-on in-app destination called ‘Dress Up’.
A few months before that, Snap launched several new features to appeal to retailers and brands, including the ability to update product information and prices in real time, access better analytics, and create AR shopping lenses more easily. Deployed many upgrades for At the same time, Snap updated Lens Web Builder to help brands create shopping lenses in minutes.
Additionally, Snap recently won a notable partner for its AR-powered commerce ambitions when it announced a partnership with Amazon for a virtual try-on shopping experience. Other brands leveraging Snapchat’s AR shopping lens include MAC Cosmetics, Ulta Beauty, American Eagle, Puma, Chanel, Walmart, and LVMH.
Th3rd is one of several AR companies acquired by Snap in recent years.
In May 2021, Snap acquired AR startup WaveOptics. WaveOptics is the company behind the technology that powers Snap’s Spectacles AR glasses. In March 2021, Snap acquired Fit Analytics to move to AR-powered e-commerce. In July 2021, we acquired Vertebrae, a 3D and AR commerce company. And last year, Snap announced it had acquired his AR company, Forma.
Given its recent investments, it’s clear the company sees potential in AR-powered commerce. A combined study by Publicis media and Snap suggests that the AR retail market will be worth $1.2 trillion in projects by 2030.
According to Snap, since January 2021, 250 million Snapchatters have used AR shopping lenses more than 5 billion times. The company recently revealed in an email that 92% of his Gen Z users are interested in using AR for shopping, after conducting a study with consulting firm Ipsos. .
But Snap isn’t the only company investing in AR-powered commerce. Pinterest and Google are also using AR to let shoppers try on cosmetics, apparel and accessories. Amazon also launched a virtual try-on experience for shoes in June 2022. It is available to consumers in the US and Canada on the Amazon iOS app.
