San Francisco, Dec 15 (IANS): The US-based online game platform Roblox has acquired Loom.ai, a privately-held company specialized in real-time facial animation technology for 3D avatars for an undisclosed amount.

"Loom.ai will accelerate making human co-experiences more immersive and personal, adding world-class facial animation technology as part of Roblox's efforts to provide expressive emotive actions to avatars that will enable deeper connections for our community," David Baszucki, CEO, Roblox said in a statement.

Loom.ai surfaced in 2016, with the goal of automating the creation of 3D avatars from a single selfie. Now, the company enables real-time facial animation tech using deep learning neural networks, computer vision, and visual effects.

Roblox has more than 36 million daily active users in its virtual world, where players create their own experiences and with the team and with the technology behind Loom.ai, Roblox will accelerate the development of next-generation avatars.

Meanwhile, Roblox delayed its planned IPO after company officials decided that the gravity-defying performance of Airbnb Inc. and DoorDash Inc. made it too difficult to determine the right price for the videogame company's shares.

Roblox had been set to go public in December, part of a year-end rush of companies seeking to tap the red-hot market for initial public offerings.