Upskill, the leader in enterprise software for augmented reality (AR) devices, today announced the acquisition of Austin, TX-based Pristine, the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of AR collaboration and video streaming software. 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 percent performance improvement from their very first use of Skylight," said Brian Ballard, co-founder and CEO, Upskill. "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 best known for its flagship product, EyeSight, which provides best-in-class "see what I see" video streaming capabilities for remote experts. Customer deployments have proven EyeSight to help workers complete inspection, compliance and repair processes at a fraction of the cost and time normally required. 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 U.S. 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."
"With these combined capabilities, Upskill now powers an unparalleled suite of applications covering complex assembly, process management, service, inspection, material handling and logistics." said Dr. Magid Abraham, Executive Chairman, Upskill. "Further, we can offer even more flexibility to our customers in how they create and support a connected workforce across their operations. It also fortifies Upskill's position as the leading choice for powering the industry 4.0 workforce with augmented reality."
This news comes just following the closing of Upskill's Series B financing, led by Boeing HorizonX and GE Ventures. Earlier this year, Upskill also participated at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos as one of WEF's 2016 Technology Pioneers.
About Pristine
Pristine is pioneering the "wearable worker," with enterprise software solutions for smart glasses, and smart devices. EyeSight, Pristine's flagship platform, powers secure and scalable audio/video streaming for hands-free collaboration and remote support in life sciences, industrial and manufacturing environments, field services and healthcare. With on-demand expertise from off-site specialists, Pristine's clients are reducing costs and driving ROI through case pre-screening and guided service workflows. EyeSight is available across every platform: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android, and smart glasses including ODG, Realwear, Google Glass and Vuzix, amongst others. More information can be found at www.pristine.io.
About Upskill
Upskill (formerly APX Labs) is the market leader in enterprise software for augmented reality devices in industrial settings. Trusted by the world's greatest companies, such as GE, Boeing, Rio Tinto, and Shell, our industrial application platform, Skylight, enhances the capabilities of hands-on workers to measurably and immediately improve business operations from the factory to the warehouse to the jobsite. By connecting workers to the information they need to do their jobs with greater efficiency and fewer errors, businesses become more agile and competitive through greater productivity, quality, and compliance. To learn more, visit upskill.io.
