AutoID & Data Capture Blog



Zebra Acquires Photoneo to Expand 3D Vision Offerings

by Andy Adelson | 01/27/2025

 


In December 2024 Zebra Technologies announced its intent to acquire Photoneo, a Slovakian maker of 3D sensors for machine vision. Founded in 2013, Photoneo differentiates itself from numerous vendors of 3D MV sensors by offering parallel structured light, developed and patented by the company’s co-founder Jan Zizka.

For Zebra, the main goal of this acquisition is to boost and accelerate growth in 3D solutions, the fastest growing segment of the machine vision market. Zebra CEO Bill Burns stated, “This combination of Zebra and Photoneo expands our portfolio of highly differentiated 3D sensors and advanced 3D machine vision software.” Zizka added, “Customers will be able to unlock considerable business value from machine vision across new, exciting use cases.”

Use cases that Photoneo’s 3D sensors excel in include bin picking, delayering, palletizing and depalletizing, creating digital twins, packaging, assembly, inspection, sorting and more.  Its customers deploy these solutions in vertical and horizontal markets both established and sought-after by Zebra: e-commerce, 3PL, automated warehouses, smart factories, manufacturing, medical fulfillment, and more.

The core of Photoneo’s value proposition is parallel structured light (PSL). For imaging, instead of projecting a single flash of light on an item with PSL the sensor projects multiple unique patterns simultaneously. Photoneo’s sensors capture the reflection, and the sensor and its software decode this to determine the 3D shape and position of the object. The main advantage of this technique is high speed, capturing three dimensional images of objects moving as fast as 40 meters per second (90 miles per hour) with minimized motion blur. Photoneo reports that PSL can also achieve higher resolution and accuracy than structured light methods employed by numerous vendors. Photoneo claims that it is the only one to offer parallel structured light, underscoring CEO Burns’ statement that this acquisition gives Zebra highly differentiated 3D sensors.

Another important part of the value proposition is that Photoneo’s sensors are particularly effective with vision-guided robotics (VGR) and will enhance Zebra’s offering for this growing market. Zebra has large investments and opportunities in robotics. In 2021, it acquired Fetch Robotics for $301M and has progressively integrated Fetch with its business. In addition, through Zebra Ventures the company holds stakes in Fox Robotics, Locus Robotics, Plus One Robotics and RightHand Robotics. Lastly, Photoneo built its own sister robotics company Brightpick (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 2021 which now has 200 employees. Brightpick will continue as an independent entity and use proceeds of the acquisition to fuel growth in the US and Europe.

Photoneo’s chief products are sensors and scanners, supported by PhoXi software. Its main sensor is MotionCam-3D. Earlier in 2024 prior to the acquisition, Zebra and Photoneo established an OEM relationship through which Zebra already sells its branded version of the MotionCam as the 3S series of high resolution 3D sensors. 3S sensors are bundled with Aurora, indicating that PhoXi is already integrated with Zebra’s vision platform.

Among its handful of acquired machine vision companies — Matrox Imaging, Adaptive Vision, Cortexica and now Photoneo — VDC sees this as significant for multiple reasons. Chief among them is that it gives Zebra a unique product and value proposition for its established and emerging markets. Adding to the value, Photoneo comes with ready customers and a go-to-market channel, already partially integrated. In the upcoming 2025 Machine Vision and Industrial Barcode Scanning report, VDC Research will be covering 3D machine vision solutions in greater detail.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. The financials of Photoneo and the acquisition will not be disclosed.