eBay acquires Corrigon to add image recognition technology to its shopping experience

eBay announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Corrigon in a move to bring more image recognition into its online marketplace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’ll be the third such deal eBay has made for its structured data effort.

“As we continue to evolve the eBay shopping experience, Corrigon’s technology and expertise will help buyers find the best results when shopping on eBay through experiences that were not possible a year ago, before our investments in structured data,” said Amit Menipaz, eBay’s vice president and general manager for structured data.

Founded in 2008 by Avinoam Omer and Einav Itamar, Corrigon runs a business around image processing and computer vision. It has a toolbox of products focused on brand monitoring, visual search, and copyright management. The company’s work has been well received enough that it won Qualcomm Ventures’ global QPrize in 2011.

The acquisition gives eBay new tools to better classify and organize products that are uploaded and auctioned within its marketplace.

As mentioned earlier, Corrigon’s purchase adds to eBay’s growing effort around structured data. It joins A.I. startup ExpertMaker and predictive analytics startup SalesPredict to make more sense around the extensive product catalog that eBay has. But it’s likely that eBay isn’t done with its shopping spree as Menipaz has said that the company’s effort is a “multi-year journey.”

When the deal closes, Corrigon’s team will remain in Israel but will be based at eBay’s development center in Netanya, joining SalesPredict. Interestingly, this makes the second purchase of an Israeli company for eBay.