We bet you hadn’t heard of North, the smart glasses start-up Google just acquired: Here are some facts about them

North Inc, the Canadian smart glasses maker you’ve never heard of, was acquired by Google’s parent Alphabet on Tuesday. Known for its Focals smart glasses, the acquisition of the Waterloo, Ontario-based startup North could help Google speed up the development of smart glasses for the mainstream market. Apple and Facebook are two other Silicon Valley heavyweights that are also rumoured to be working on augmented reality smart glasses.

While the deal is valued at less than $200 million, North’s “technical expertise” will help Google invest in its “hardware efforts and ambient computing future”. Google was among the first tech companies to explore the smart glasses space with its ill-fated Google Glass, but has since shifted its focus to the enterprise market.