Calgary and Toronto-based startup Slyce, the company that recently raised nearly $11 million in venture capital, is going public on the TSX Venture Exchange.
Slyce is a mobile purchasing platform that allows users to buy stuff using a visual product search function. If users see something they like at a retail store, they can simply use their Slyce app to scan it and eventually purchase the product.
Today the company announced that it has entered into a definitive amalgamation agreement with Oculus Ventures Corporation to make that happen.
Over the past six months Slyce has completed a $10.75 million series A funding round, it created a Nova Scotia-based technology hub that intends to employ up to 60 people, and it also acquired Toronto visual search startup Hovr.It. Before that, Slyce acquired a computer vision technology from York University.
“We are incredibly excited to be taking Slyce to the public markets and see this move as another key step towards our goal of building the next great Canadian technology company,” said CEO Cameron Chell. The retail landscape is changing rapidly and we’re experiencing strong demand for this technology from a growing list of Fortune 1000 brands which see the significance in the service we offer – namely, enabling much of the physical world to be their showroom.”
Oculus stock was halted at the close of trading Monday, April 21, 2014 and will remain so pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Slyce’s strategy is to provide the visual search technology to the world’s leading brands and retailers, enabling their customers to snap a smartphone picture of any item they find, or hover over any image online, and be instantly connected with all close-matching products from the retailer’s inventory. Items can be purchased instantly, at the exact point of consumer inspiration.
Techcrunch recently called Slyce the “Amazon Flow for every other retailer on the planet”, referencing Amazon’s ‘Flow’ image recognition app that lets shoppers point their mobile phone camera at products to find the Amazon listing.