Apostera, a german automotive tech firm is acquired by Samsung’s Harman

HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on 10th February bought an entire stake in German automotive software firm Apostera to expand its business in the augmented reality and mobility technology sector.

“HARMAN is dedicated to delivering in-car experiences with the speed and flexibility of consumer technology together with the reliability and performance of automotive-grade solutions,” said Christian Sobottka, President, Automotive Division, HARMAN. “By seamlessly blending AR with the physical environment, Apostera’s mixed reality solution furthers this goal, transforming any display in the car into a richly contextual experience.”

“We are proud to join HARMAN, a visionary leader in automotive technologies that has been central to the digital transformation of the industry,” said Andrey Golubinskiy, CEO of Apostera. “The scale and reach that HARMAN will bring to our technologies will propel their adoption as the industry benchmark and bring richer in-vehicle experiences to more drivers than ever before.”

Munich based apostera, founded in 2017, is specialized in software solutions for augmented and mixed reality. Apostera’s employees will join HARMAN as part of the company’s Automotive division. “We welcome our new team members to HARMAN,” said Sobottka, “and we look forward to delivering together the next breakthrough MR products to our partners across the automotive industry.”

Samsung electronics didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal. Combined with HARMAN’s digital cockpit product portfolio, these new software solutions will bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds.

Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip and smartphone vendor, completed its acquisition of Harman for $8 billion in march 2017 to expand into the rapidly growing in vehicle electronics market . The company recorded 600 billion won in annual operating income last year, its highest profit since it was acquired by the South Korean tech giant.