Which startup behind the 3D face-scanning app Seene did Snapchat acquire in June 2016?

Snapchat acquired Obvious Engineering, the startup behind the 3D face-scanning app Seene, in June 2016. Seene used a smartphone camera to create three-dimensional scans of faces and objects, technology that fit Snapchat’s growing interest in augmented-reality effects.

The acquisition was reported as taking place on June 3, 2016. Rather than keeping Seene as a major standalone consumer service, Snapchat absorbed the small team and its technical expertise. The deal helped strengthen the computer-vision capabilities that could support face tracking, masks, and other interactive camera effects.

Snapchat was building an acquisition-driven camera technology stack at the time. It had previously bought Looksery, whose facial-recognition technology helped power animated Lenses, and had acquired Bitstrips in 2016 for its Bitmoji avatar business. Obvious Engineering therefore belonged to a broader push to make the Snapchat camera more expressive and technically sophisticated.

The answer is not Looksery, Vergence Labs, or Scan.me. Looksery was a separate facial-effects acquisition; Vergence Labs worked on smart eyewear; and Scan.me specialized in QR-code scanning.