Irish retail tech company, Pointy, is set to be bought by Google in the coming weeks.
The value of the deal is yet to be disclosed, but it's rumoured to be around $163 million by US technology publisher TechCrunch.
Founded six years ago by Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby, Pointy makes technology that enables smaller retailers to list their stock online without setting up a full e-commerce website.
The company provides small shops with a “pointy box,” which connects to a shop’s barcode scanner and automatically lists products online once scanned.
The technology optimises the performance of local shops in search engines and gives them more of a chance of competing with e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Rakuten.
In a blog post on the company’s website, co-founders Mr Cummins and Mr Bibby said that their six-year journey at the technology firm had been an “incredible journey.”
The pair said: “From small beginnings, we’re very proud to serve local retailers in almost every city and every town in the US and throughout Ireland.
“Over the past several years we’ve developed a very close partnership with Google. It became clear that we shared the same vision of how technology can improve local retail businesses. So today is a natural next step in our journey.”
The blog post stated that the sale is expected to be closed in the coming weeks and is subject to customary closing conditions.
This is the second time that Mr Cummins has been bought out by Google after his former startup, Plink, was sold to the giant corporation in 2010.
Google said in a statement that it was "excited" about the deal to buy Pointy which it says "has helped thousands of local retailers bring their product inventory online."
It added: "Pointy has been one of our key partners, helping thousands of local merchants display this data within Google.
"We’re looking forward to working with Pointy to help even more local retailers bring their product inventory online."
Pointy has raised $19.2 million from three rounds of funding since it was established.
Prominent investors include founder of Wordpress, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of Bebo, Michael Birch, and Irish investment firm Frontline Ventures.
