Scandit, a Switzerland-based computer technology spinout from ETH Zurich, raised $30m in a series B round on Thursday led by GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet.

NGP Capital, the venture capital firm spun off from communications technology provider Nokia, also took part in the round, as did VC firm Atomico, the only named investor in Scandit’s $7.5m series A round in January 2017.

Founded in 2009, Scandit has created a software platform that helps any camera-equipped mobile device glean information from barcodes, text, visual symbols and surrounding visual identifiers.

The platform combines computer vision, machine learning and augmented reality technology, and means that objects can interact with mobile devices without requiring the embedding of a microchip.

The round increased the company’s overall funding to $43m, including $5.5m provided by a group of high-net worth technology entrepreneurs led by Ariel Luedi, the founder of e-commerce vendor Hybrid, in 2014.

Samuel Mueller, chief executive of Scandit, said: “We are thrilled to have GV and NGP Capital as partners. Both have a deep understanding of the opportunities that exist for advanced mobile computer vision.

“This new funding will enable us to keep up our rapid growth, but also, looking at the bigger picture, it is going to increase the overall adoption of mobile computer vision and augmented reality in the enterprise, which will help to streamline operations and lead to cost savings.”

– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures, has led a $30m series B round for Switzerland-based computer technology provider Scandit.

NGP Capital, the venture capital firm spun off from communications technology provider Nokia, also took part in the round, as did VC firm Atomico, the only named investor in Scandit’s $7.5m series A round in January 2017.

Founded in 2009, Scandit has created a software platform that helps any camera-equipped mobile device glean information from barcodes, text, visual symbols and surrounding visual identifiers.

The platform combines computer vision, machine learning and augmented reality technology, and means that objects can interact with mobile devices without requiring the embedding of a microchip.

GV general partner Tom Hulme said: “Scandit delivers high performance across different smartphones by combining deep learning and machine learning with more traditional computer vision heuristics, creating an entirely new approach to computer vision applications for the enterprise.

“Combined with the technical strength of the founding team, Scandit’s mobile data capture platform is well-positioned to shape how enterprises and consumers interact with everyday objects and augmented reality,.”

The round increased the company’s overall funding to $43m, including $5.5m provided by a group of high-net worth technology entrepreneurs led by Ariel Luedi, the founder of e-commerce vendor Hybrid, in 2014.