A Swiss startup offering mobile visual search and augmented reality technology, kooaba, landed about $3 million venture funding (from undisclosed Swiss investors) the company’s co-founder and chief executive Herbert Bay reported this morning.
Kooaba was spun out of the Computer Vision Lab at a top science and technology university in Switzerland, ETH Zurich.
The company’s mobile phone apps allow users to take a snapshot of print ads, DVD and book covers, movie posters and physical goods, to derive product information, best available prices, and possibly coupons or associated digital extras.
It plans to use this capital to enter into new geographical markets, and pursue partnerships with other companies in the visual search and augmented reality space like Layar and metaio.
The company’s image recognition API debuted in March.
