Social blogging platform Pinterest has acquired two mobile-first startups, Pext and The Hunt, to expand its visual search and recommendation capabilities and expand its engineering teams, as it focuses more on driving sales through its Buyable Pins ad units.

The Hunt is a community-powered shopping service, while Pext is an app that matches images to user-made memes and graphics. Pinterest have not disclosed any details of the deals, which mark the companys eighth and ninth acquisitions.

Last month Pinterest launched a new visual search tool, enabling users to identify elements within pictures that they wished to know more about, and search for similar items on the site. Acquiring Pext will provide it with a considerable boost in this area, both in terms of technology and talent acquired; Harsh Goel, co-founder of the firm, is a former Google employee who specialises in image indexing and ad technology.

By acquiring The Hunt, Pinterest is likely aiming to strengthen its recommendation and eCommerce features. The community-based service enables users to post images they have found on social media (including Pinterest) and then lets other users suggest where they might find similar items for sale.

The Hunts CEO and co-founder, Tim Weingarten, will be joining Pinterest as a product manager on the commerce team, while the rest of the team will be assigned to Pinterests data science and engineering teams.

Pext has already removed its app from the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store, while The Hunt plans to shut down its services early next year.