The LinkedIn acquisition described as scanning business cards into contacts was CardMunch.
CardMunch was a mobile application that photographed or scanned paper business cards and converted their information into digital contacts. LinkedIn acquired the company in January 2011 for approximately $1.7 million, adding a practical bridge between offline networking and an online professional network.
The deal made sense for LinkedIn because business cards often represented the first step in a professional relationship. Turning them into contacts could reduce manual data entry and help users connect with people they had met at conferences, meetings, or other business events. The acquisition was part of LinkedIn’s broader effort to expand its mobile presence.
CardMunch is sometimes confused with LinkedIn’s other acquisitions because the company bought startups covering search, social CRM, news, sales, and content. IndexTank, for example, became associated with LinkedIn Search, while Connected served social-CRM functions. CardMunch’s distinctive role was contact capture from physical business cards. LinkedIn later retired the service in 2014 and arranged for users to migrate their data to Evernote.