Tim Cook, CEO, Apple.  Photo credit: Fortune Photo, licensed under Creative Commons

Technology giant Apple has acquired Vilynx, a Barcelona-based artificial intelligence and computer vision startup, coughing up $50 million for the company, according to a report [paywalled] by Bloomberg. Apple usually keeps its acquisitions tight-lipped so it’s no surprise that no formal announcement was provided by the company. 

Vilynx, which is headquartered in the Spanish city of Barcelona, builds software that utilizes artificial intelligence techniques to analyze video content to understand to what the video shows. Its technology is used to create tags for videos to make them easily searchable.

As a result of the acquisition, around 50 engineers and data scientists from Vilynx have become Apple employees and with Vilynx’s office morphing into an European research hub for Apple.

The reported $50 million acquisition price marks a significant win for Vilynx, which as a privately-held startup had raised about $11 million in equity and debt funding. Among the company’s backers whom presumably reaped significant profit from its acquisition include venture capital firms Kibo Ventures and Ridgewood Capital.

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