US tech giant Qualcomm has acquired the Ukrainian-founded, now California-based AR and VR software developer Augmented Pixels.

“The technologies and expertise developed by Augmented Pixels could help increase Qualcomm’s capacities in the fields of Extended Reality (XR), Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality,” stated industry blog AIN.UA. It added that Augmented Pixels’ founder Vitaly Goncharuk “will remain at Qualcomm in the XR team after the deal.”

The company was founded back in 2013 in Odesa, southern Ukraine. It has since developed a proprietary simultaneous localization and 3D mapping technology that has applications in augmented reality navigation and 3D mapping for mobile phones, drones, and robots.

“A unique full technology stack allows the company to lead in the robotics and AR/VR markets. With the help of the CorpMap.AI product, Augmented Pixels will disrupt the current market of mapping solutions and offer unique solutions that will significantly reduce the cost of operations in logistics, facility management, and other markets,” Goncharuk had said earlier.

AVentures Capital, a leading Ukrainian VC firm, was the company’s earliest investor. “At that time, there were just three engineers, and we helped set up a legal entity,” said the company’s co-founder Yevgen Sysoyev.

Later, the company relocated to Palo Alto, California, while leaving its R&D team in Ukraine. It also raised a $2 million funding round in February last year, led by ICU Ventures and VentureBot. The financial details for the acquisition have not been disclosed yet.

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