Software provider for AR devices Upskill acquires Pristine

Enterprise software provider for augmented reality (AR) devices, Upskill, has acquired Pristine, an Austin, TX-based company — a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of AR collaboration and video streaming software, for an undisclosed amount. Upskill was previously known as APX Labs and was founded in 2010. Pristine’s remote assistance and knowledge capture solutions will complement Upskill’s existing Skylight industrial AR platform to offer the most comprehensive product offering in the industry, making it easier for customers to meet their operational needs and IT requirements. “Augmented reality is driving incredible productivity results across functional areas in industrial enterprises. Our customers are seeing an average of 32% performance improvement from their very first use of Skylight,” said Brian Ballard, Co-founder and CEO, Upskill. Skylight is an industrial AR application platform, built by Upskill, for smart glasses that connect hands-on workers to the information they need to do their jobs.

“There aren’t very many new technologies that can deliver this kind of ‘out of the box’ value creation, which is why adoption of AR technology is accelerating at an incredible pace. This underscores the importance for Upskill to leverage new opportunities that will help us scale and innovate faster than anyone else in the space. The acquisition of Pristine will allow us to do just that.”

Pristine is known for its flagship product, EyeSight, which provides “see what I see” video streaming capabilities for remote experts. Through the acquisition, Upskill will now offer Pristine’s portfolio of field-worker collaboration solutions including EyeSight. These applications are typically deployed on smart glasses, but are also available across Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. With Pristine solutions in its repertoire, Upskill will be able to add breadth and domain expertise to its product offering and more choices for customers seeking to implement AR across manufacturing, logistics and field service applications. Along with the added technology capabilities and product solutions, Pristine also brings to Upskill a talented engineering and product team with deep industry experience in scaling deployment of enterprise wearables across an impressive client base, including Coca-Cola, Bayer, The Hershey Company, National Oilwell Varco, Sandvik and Bureau Veritas. Pristine’s CEO, Peter Evans, will step into a newly appointed role as Executive Vice President. The acquisition will also establish Upskill’s third US office in Austin, expanding recruiting to a growing epicenter for tech talent and providing increased regional support to customers located in the Southwestern US. “Our EyeSight solution makes it easy for clients to get up and running quickly with remote assistance capabilities, making skills and knowledge available via the cloud. The need for this type of work solution in enterprises is massive, particularly in organizations with a large field services workforce, where there is a growing gap between demand for skills, and the availability of those skills,” said Peter Evans, CEO, Pristine. “As customers expand the use of AR across their operations, a scalable AR platform with direct integrations to their IT and OT investments becomes more important. With Upskill’s Skylight platform, we can now address the entire operational lifecycle of an enterprise and do it in the cloud, on-premise or in hybrid cloud environments.” Upskill, last month, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B round of funding, led by Boeing HorizonX and GE Ventures.