Over a year after it said no to Facebook’s takeover, the Snow app raises US$50 million in funding. It’s a comeback story that is astounding as the funds come from both Japan’s SoftBank Group and Sequoia China.

Many would have read or believe that Snow is a Snapchat clone from China. It is to a point though its origins are very legit as it is a platform that Korean-based Naver built. These are the same folks behind the popular Line messaging platform.

After it launched, the Snow app moved quickly to capture most of Asia, specifically Korea, China, and Southeast Asia. It is very successful due to its use of localised filters, stickers, and features.

TechCrunch surmised that it is also due to how Snapchat never really focused its efforts in these populous regions.

With the US$50 million funding, Snow wants to innovate its most famous features. Namely: Augmented Reality (AR) and facial recognition.

Ever since it pivoted into being a pure selfie camera app, these two features became the mainstay offers from Snow. The move also effectively addresses the clone affair as the instant messaging feature is no longer available.

According to TechCrunch, without the chat function, Snow moved to double down on its selfie-related capabilities. Hence the renewed focus on its AR and facial recognition offerings.

Part of the renewed efforts include engaging China-based SenseTime for facial recognition work and various new partners for AR development.

It’ll be an exciting year for Snow with this new funding.

(Source and picture credit: TechCrunch)