Affectiva Bought For $ 73.5 Million.

Affectiva, the tech startup using AI to monitor human emotions. It spun out of MIT Media Lab and created the new technology category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence. It has since helped many companies, including advertisers to monitor response to their contents.

The company’s website states the company is focused on 5 verticals. They are automotive, media, audience and customer analytics, social robotics, and, through their partner iMotions, human behavioral research.

The company was acquired by Smart Eye in a $73.5 million in a cash-and-stock deal. Smart Eye is a publicly traded Swedish company that supplies driver monitoring systems for a dozen automakers. Both were formerly competitors in the eye tracking space before the announcement of the acquisition. Word is that after meeting at Consumer Electronics Show in 2020, the story changed.

According to the terms of the deal, $67.5 million will be paid with 2,354,668 new Smart Eye shares, of which 2,015,626 are to be issued upon closing of the transaction. The remaining 339,042 Smart Eye shares will be issued within two years of closing. About $6 million will be paid in cash once the deal closes in June 2021.

The chief marketing officer of Affectiva, Gabi Zijderveld, said in an email that all 100 employees of Affectiva will be staying on and joining the Smart Eye team. This includes the CEO.