Pinterest is set to “acquihire” the team behind Tote, an app used to discover and shop with input from “friends and influencers”.

The move comes shortly after a similar move involving smart keyboard app Fleksy.

Tote’s CEO and co-founder Mike Bidgoli explained that the app was created to help people shop for what they discovered on Instagram using Pinterest.

In a blog post, he said “merchandising is no longer at the sole discretion of retailers and brands, but instead it is personalised, editorialised, and spread via thousands of influencers  —  bloggers and consumers alike”.

“The hard reality of building a consumer business is that a great product alone does not result in a viable business. As we geared up to raise our next round of funding, we came across an opportunity to join Pinterest where we could launch our work to 100M+ engaged users,” he said.

“Pinterest has also recently made big bets on commerce, courting influencers, and launching a powerful ad platform. We believe that with these key building blocks, Pinterest is now positioned more than any other service to create the future we had hoped for in Tote,” he added.

Tote will be shutting down on 15 July and users can migrate their account to Pinterest.

This is a different approach to Flesky, which will continue to run for the foreseeable future.

Fleksy
Fleksy founder and CEO Kosta Eleftheriou will join Pinterest’s product engineering team. Pinterest said it is not acquiring the technology of the company.

Fleksy first launched in the iOS store as a standalone app for blind users, and the plan is to open-source some of the app’s accessibility components.

According to Scott Goodson, head of core experience at Pinterest: “The Fleksy team is made up of truly noteworthy engineers and world experts in their areas. These technical artists have a history of developing architecturally innovative, highly optimised software.”

TechCrunch suggested that Pinterest is “going to need to continue to amass people with expertise in commerce” if it wants to improve its user experience and monetise its user base.

Last month, the firm acquired the team behind URX, a mobile advertising platform designed to help users discover content inside apps.

Back in December, it acquired The Hunt, provider of a community-powered shopping service, as well as Pext, an app that turns text messages into memes.