Dublin-based Pointy sold to Google for an alleged $160 million

Pointy, the Dublin-based e-Commerce B2B SaaS platform, has been acquired by Google for an officially undisclosed amount, though other outlets report the sum at around $160 million. This is Pointy founder and CEO Mark Cummins’ second acquisition to Google. Cummins sold his previous startup, a visual search engine called Plink, in 2010.

Founded in 2014, Pointy allows brick-and-mortar shops to instantly list their inventory online, creating an e-Commerce arm of the business. The system connects existing barcode scanners to a Pointy Box, which then lists products online, fully optimised for search engines, particularly Google.

The acquisition follows a partnership between both companies that began in 2018. The Irish startup sees the acquisition as its opportunity to fuel global expansion and continue putting local retailers on the map. It also falls in line with the tech giant’s stated goal of helping local merchants connect with customers and grow their businesses on Google platforms. Following the successful partnership, Pointy secured a $12 million Series B of funding in 2018, bringing total fundraising to $19 million. Investors include the first and original investor, Dublin’s Frontline Ventures, plus Draper Associates, Polaris Partners, Vulcan Ventures, and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg.

The company used the funding to expand its platform across the pond. Pointy is already staking its ground in the US market: the technology has been purchased by over 1 percent of retailers, is used in thousands of stores, and has reached 10 percent coverage of retail data in certain verticals.

Commenting on the deal, Will Prendergast of Frontline Ventures said: “Pointy's vision is to make the world's offline products searchable for consumers — and empower merchants to become ‘smart retailers.’ Post acquisition, Google will continue rolling out the Pointy technology, to further enhance the local consumer experience — and empower local retailers to be more efficient, and more profitable.”

This story used to state that Google paid “over $80 million” for Pointy and was subsequently updated to reflect the new reports putting the amount at around $160 million.