May 16, 2016

Musician entrepreneur Will.i.am’s new wearable bracelet watch gadget, Dial, is powered by Israeli technology. Will.i.am acquired the Israeli startup Sensiya to tap into the Tel Aviv company’s machine learning, Natural Language Processing and Natural Language Understanding capabilities.

“Sense Services is a turnkey solution for OEMs that packs Sensiya’s advanced contextual capabilities, allowing apps and developers to offer advanced experiences that make your devices stand out,” reads the company’s website.

Financial details of the purchase were not reported. However, Sensiya’s CEO Noam Fine told Geektime that his company worked with i.am+, the musician’s company, for over a year before agreeing to merge in an acquisition.

Sensiya was founded in 2014. According to Geektime, investors include Yossi Vardi, Shlomo Nehama, Avi Shechter, and Stav Shacham.

The new Dial watch has a dedicated SIM card slot that lets users text, call, email, play music and manage their lifestyle from their wrist.

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