Google has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) avatar startup Alter for about $100 million to drive its content gaming and better compete with TikTok.
The source said the acquisition was completed about two months ago, but neither company disclosed it to the public. Some of Alter's executives have updated their LinkedIn profile to share that they have joined Google but have not admitted the acquisition. The source asked to be anonymous because they were sharing non-public information. A Google spokesman confirmed that the company had acquired Alter but declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal.
, headquartered in the United States and , Czech , was originally used as a platform for Facemoji, providing "plug and play" technology to help game and application developers put avatar systems into their applications. The startup received $3 million in seed funding from investors including Play Ventures, Roosh Ventures and Twitter.
Facemoji was later renamed Alter.
A person familiar with the matter said Google wants to use Alter to improve and increase its content division's products. Jon Slimak and Robin Raszka, founders of
Alter, did not respond to a request for comment.
