Spectral Edge, a UK-based automated image enhancement technology developer, has been acquired by computing technology producer Apple for an undisclosed amount, allowing aerospace manufacturer Marshall of Cambridge to exit, Bloomberg has reported.
Spun out of University of East Anglia’s Colour Lab in 2011, Spectral Edge has developed 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. Apple could hypothetically use it to improve its own smartphone cameras’ capabilities in low light.
Spectral Edge has raised approximately $7.9m including $510,000 in a 2014 round co-led by Iceni Seedcorn Fund and UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund. Both returned for a $2.1m round featuring Marshall subsidiary Martlet, Parkwalk Advisors, IQ Capital, Wren Capital, Cambridge Capital Group and Cambridge Angels two years later.
Parkwalk Advisors, a subsidiary of commercialisation firm IP Group, joined IQ Capital to supply an additional $5.3m in April 2018.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.