US-based software company Nuance Communications acquired US-based touchscreen technology firm Swype on Thursday for $102.5m. Swype’s backers included corporate venturing units Nokia Growth Partners, Samsung Ventures and DoCoMo Capital.
Swype completed its series C round as recently as July, with Nokia, Samsung and Docomo all participating alongside Benaroya Capital, the corporate venturing division of real estate firm Benaroya, and venture capital firm Ignition Partners. The round raised $6m. Nokia, Samsung, Docomo and Benaroya were previously the participants in Swype’s February 2010 series B round, which raised $6.6m.
The $102.5m is to be paid entirely in cash, with Nuance having already paid $77.5m upfront. The remaining $25m will be paid in 18 months time. Swype is one of several Nuance acquisitions to have topped $100m over the last five years, including voice to text service SpinVox, mobile software company SnapIn and print management software developer Equitrac.
Swype’s input software for touchscreens allows users to type words by sliding their fingers across an onscreen keyboard instead of tapping keys. Nuance’s speech recognition and imaging applications could potentially incorporate Swype’s technology into a larger, all-purpose input system for use in a wide range of products.
Mike McSherry, chief executive officer of Swype, told financial website TechCrunch: "The broadest vision is that we want to be the input for every single stream. You talk to your refrigerator and in-car navigation, you want your language models to follow you around."