Apple has picked up UEA's camera enhancement spinout Spectral Edge in a deal expected to boost the photography capabilities of its smartphones.

Spectral Edge, a UK-based automated image enhancement spinout from University of East Anglia (UEA), has been acquired by computing company Apple for an undisclosed sum, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Regulatory filings submitted by Spectral Edge indicate it has added Peter Denwood, director for corporate law at Apple, to its board, while dismissing its other advisers and directors.
Spun out of UEA’s Colour Lab in 2011, Spectral Edge has developed a technology that enhances smartphone photographs by correlating infrared footage with a standard picture to create sharper images with more accurate colours.
Initially designed to help people with colour blindness, the infrared technology was later supplemented with tools for boosting picture quality and night-time photographs.
Bloomberg speculated the deal would benefit Apple’s smartphone camera by improving its capabilities in low-light settings. The latest iteration of Apple’s smartphones incorporates purpose-built processors for photography, and Spectral Edge’s technology can run from both hardware and software.
Parkwalk Advisors, a fund management subsidiary of commercialisation firm IP Group, joined IQ Capital for Spectral Edge’s $5.3m round in April 2018.
The deal followed $2.1m in 2016 from investors including Parkwalk, IQ Capital and the UEA-allied Iceni Seedcorn Fund, as well as Martlet, the corporate venturing arm of aerospace, defence and property group Marshall of Cambridge.
Wren Capital, Cambridge Capital Group  and members of Cambridge Angels also participated in the 2016 round, as did Rainbow Seed Fund, the UK government-backed vehicle since renamed UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund.
Iceni Seedcorn Fund and Rainbow Seed Fund had already co-led  a $510,000 round in 2014.