Why Does Amazon Want to Scan My Body?

 Recently Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced it was buying 3D modeling start-up Body Labs, for what sources say is close to $70 million. Body Labs makes software that models true-to-life 3D depictions of people's bodies. The product is most likely to be used in Amazon's nascent apparel businesses, but could also be applicable to other fields as well. Here's what investors need to know.

Body Labs was formed in 2013, when it received $2.2 million in seed funding, with an $11 million follow-on Series A round in 2015 that included Intel's venture investing arm. The company was formed by Michael Black, Eric Rachlin, and Alex Weiss, along with venture capitalist and entrepreneur Bill O'Farrell.

According to O'Farrell's description, Body Labs is, "focused on delivering the human body as a digital platform for creating and acquiring goods and services." While "delivering the human body" sounds like an oddly morbid description for a business, the company's technology enables the further blending of the physical and digital world, which is right up Amazon's alley. To give a better sense of the products and goals of the company, it helps to know that the founders studied at the Max Planck Institute, which describes its research approach as "highly interdisciplinary ... \ combin[ing] mathematics, computation, material science, and biology."

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Source: Fool.com