Google Acquires AI Avatar Start-Up Alter By Investing $100 Million

Google successfully acquired Alter, an artificial intelligence (AI)- based avatar start-up to compete with TikTok for $100 million. 

As per multiple reports, the acquisition took place two months ago, though both companies chose to remain silent about this development. The acquisition drew attention when Jonathan Silmak, chief operating officer of Alter and other officials updated their Linkedin profiles, revealing they have joined Google. 

Starting as Facemoji, Alter received $3 million in its first seed funding round from the investors like Twitter, Roosh Ventures, and Play Ventures recently. Using plug-and-play tech innovation, it helps other game and app developers to put avatar systems into their applications.

This avatar-building technology is expected to benefit Google, which recently unveiled its custom emoji feature in chat. These emojis will make the expression easy for the users, Google claimed in a blog post. 

In 2022, Google acquired a total of eight companies, including cybersecurity brand Siemplify and Mandinant, augmented reality company Raxium, robotics software Vicarious, MobiledgeX mobile edge computing brand, BreezoMeter air quality monitoring and BrightBytes Data analytics entity.