Google has acquired a Twitter-funded startup Alter that develops avatars using artificial intelligence. According to a report by Techcrunch, Google paid $100 million for this acquisition. The acquisition was completed about two months ago but Google and Alter didn’t make a public announcement.
Google has also confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch but didn’t disclose the deal’s financial terms. Alter founders Jon Slimak and Robin Raszka didn’t comment on the matter.
The company was founded back in 2017 as Facemoji and later rebranded as Alter. It also raised $3 million in seed funding from Play Ventures, Roosh Ventures, and Twitter
Alter uses artificial intelligence to make avatars and the company helps game and app developers put an avatar system into their apps. Alter has stopped new partner sign-ups and existing partners also no longer access the API.
Google also recently introduced custom emojis to its Chat for a personalized experience. Alter team could have a role in launching this feature.
