- Google recently announced it is buying Dublin, Ireland-based Pointy. The deal is reportedly valued at €147 million.
Google recently announced it was buying Dublin, Ireland-based Pointy. The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but TechCrunch’s sources pegged the deal at €147 million. Pointy is known for building software and hardware for helping retailers list their inventory online without much extra work.
Pointy has been partners with Google over the last few years. And then it became clear that the two companies shared the same vision of how technology can improve local retail businesses.
“The last six years have been an incredible adventure, and today marks the start of a new chapter. From small beginnings, we’re very proud to serve local retailers in almost every city and every town in the US and throughout Ireland. Many incredibly talented people have joined our team, we’ve received the backing of an amazing group of investors, and formed some fantastic partnerships. It is a great pleasure to work on something that helps local businesses in towns and cities everywhere,” wrote Pointy CEO Mark Cummins and CTO Charles Bibby in a blog post.
Pointy sells a small physical box that can be plugged into barcode scanners — which tracks what is sold and displays how many items are left on the retailer’s website or app.
Since the company launched, it raised about $20 million in funding from investors like Frontline Ventures, Polaris, and LocalGlobe. Former Google Maps executive Lars Rasmussen, TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg are also investors in the company.
Google’s partnership with Pointy involves a building out of Google’s shopping portal with additional e-commerce tools. With this acquisition, Google will likely build more on these tools.
Cummins previously sold a different company to Google. Specifically, Cummins launched a visual search company called Plink — which was Google’s first acquisition out of the UK.
