eBay to buy Israel’s SalesPredict to track buyer tastes
Following the acquisition, whose price was undisclosed, some employees will join eBay’s Netanya center
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
eBay, the San Jose, California based e-commerce company, said on Monday it will acquire SalesPredict, an Israel-based maker of technology that is able to track consumer behavior and preferences when shopping online.
SalesPredict is eBay’s latest acquisition and is in line with the e-commerce company’s efforts to use artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science to boost sales, eBay said in a statement.
The acquisition follows eBay’s recent buy of Sweden-based Expertmaker. also a provider of machine learning analytics and artificial intelligence solutions. Financial terms of the deal for the Israeli company were not disclosed, but press reports valued it at $20 million to $30 million.
“SalesPredict’s deep expertise in predictive analytics and machine learning will contribute to eBay’s structured data efforts,” said Amit Menipaz, vice president and general manager of Structured Data at eBay. “For our buyers, it will help us better understand the price differentiating attributes of our products, and, for our sellers, it will help us build out the predictive models that can define the probability of selling a given product at a given price over time.”
eBay’s structured data initiative is based on three main factors: collecting the data; processing and enriching the data; and creating product experiences, Menipaz said. SalesPredict will contribute to data processing and enrichment, and more specifically provide insight into the company’s inventory.
Upon the close of the transaction, some of SalesPredict’s employees will join eBay’s structured data organization, working from eBay’s Israeli Development Center in Netanya. SalesPredict co-founder and CEO Yaron Zakai-Or will serve as a director of Product Management, Technology, and SalesPredict co-founder and CTO Kira Radinsky will be director of Data Science & chief scientist, eBay Israel.
“With more than 900 million listings on eBay, there is an enormous opportunity to extend our experience in machine learning and predictive analytics to help eBay identify important product attributes that can affect the price of a product,” said Zakai-Or. “In partnership with eBay’s broader structured data team, we will help arm eBay sellers with more information about the value of items, ultimately helping to increase customer sales conversions.”
SalesPredict was co-founded in 2012 by Zakai-Or and Radinsky and its main investors include Yandex, AfterDox, Redline Capital, KGC Capital, and Pitango Venture Capital.
