Cognovision acquired by Intel

UPDATE: We are hearing that the acquisition price tag is closer to $30m and possibly even higher. 

Another great exit for the Toronto startup community and some great news in advance of CIX in a few weeks. Toronto based Cognovision has reportedly been acquired by intel. According to DailyDOOH, which covers the digital out of home market, the pricetag was $17m.

Cognovision was the winner of the CIX pitch competition last year.

I have to admit that when I first heard the Cognovision pitch, it felt holodeck cool. It also seemed “too good to be true” — Turns out I was wrong and the company shot to ~$1m in revenue pretty quickly. Using a camera on top of a digital display, Cognovision could give you some rough estimates that covered:

• Actual Impressions – The number of people who look at your displays
• Length of Impressions – How long people look for
• Potential Audience Size – The number of people who walk by
• Dwell Time – How long people stay near your displays
• Anonymous Demographics – Demographics of your audience (gender and age bracket)

Congrats to Shahzad, Haroon an the entire team.