CMS Software Start-Up Raydiant Acquires Dutch AI Computer Vision Spin-Out SightCorp

January 13, 2022 by Dave Haynes

More consolidation news today in the digital signage ecosystem, with word that San Francisco start-up Raydiant has acquired Amsterdam start-up SightCorp, giving the US CMS software firm in-house computer vision capabilities.

Raydiant, which describes itself as an in-location experience management platform (that’s a new one!), also gets more of a footprint into the EU, where it has substantial growth plans. Under the deal, Raydiant CEO Bobby Marhamat leads the business while Joyce Caradonna, previously CEO of Sightcorp, is now Raydiant’s Managing Director EMEA.

No deal terms were announced.

“To survive and thrive in the future of brick and mortar, brands must deliver a seamless in-location customer experience that’s convenient, digital, and personalized; yet many are held back by the complexities and high price point of achieving these goals,” says Marhamat. “We’ve built Raydiant from the ground up to help solve these pain points and are thrilled to add Sightcorp’s unmatched technology into our product offerings to more deeply serve the evolving needs of brands, customers, and employees worldwide.”

Together, the companies say in announcing the deal, they “will provide dynamic, optimized content on screens powered by real-time audience and performance data insights. Retailers and media network owners will gain the opportunity to sell advertising space at a premium accompanied by ad performance metrics, targeting capabilities, and more.”

Sightcorp’s proprietary technology allows media owners to provide advertisers and media buyers with meaningful audience insights and data visualizations based on live analysis captured anonymously on-camera, including age, gender, opportunity to see (OTS), impression and viewer counts, and attention and dwell times. To ensure privacy, the Sightcorp DeepSight Toolkit blurs all faces by default and is built to process all data offline and locally. Sightcorp cites the highest accuracy rate compared to its competitors and is the only player in the market applying 100% of the latest deep learning research in its audience analytics products.

“This acquisition hits all of the synergy markers for us and will allow us to grow faster,” says Caradonna. “We are very excited to continue investing big in research and development to create smart and innovative solutions that owners of on-premise media networks, agencies, and advertisers can use to seamlessly deliver compelling and valuable content to their target audiences.”

Though relatively new on the industry scene, Raydiant says it has more than 3,500 customers in 63 countries, including First Bank, Dickey’s BBQ, Harvard University, The Salvation Army, Red Bull, Chick-Fil-A, Thomson Reuters and Wahlburgers (actor Mark Wahlberg is a Raydiant investor).

The San Francisco-based company is hiring and says it plans to triple its headcount this year. Sightcorp’s European team has a goal to grow from 20 team members to 100 in 2022, with plans to open offices in Lithuania and London.

This seems a good move all the way around. Raydiant adds audience and venue analytics capability that it would have otherwise had to write or market via a partner, and deeper ties into Europe. SightCorp gets access into the US and the safety net, if you want to call it that, of a software company in growth mode, backed by Silicon Valley money.