Estonian AI-driven modelling startup Alpha AR reached a total of one million dollars funding after its closure at $800K in the latest seed funding round led by Curiosity VC and ZAKA Startups. The funding will allow the company to enhance its AI-powered platform, which offers an effective way of creating 3D content for augmented reality, virtual try-on, virtual reality, NFTs, games, and marketing. The platform provides benefits to retailers since online shopping has become widespread, buyers are heading towards places where they can get the highest possible level of service. It offers companies a three-dimensional view of their products so that their customers can examine them.
Tallinn-based Alpha AR raises $800,000 funding for its AI-driven 3D modelling platform
Alpha AR, an Estonian startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create 3D models from 2D images, has announced the closure of its latest seed funding round, which was led by ZAKA Startups and Curiosity VC. The round, which raised $800,000, will be used to support the continued development of Alpha AR’s AI platform. This latest investment brings the company’s total funding to $1,000,000.
Alpha AR started with the realization that companies don’t have an effective way of creating 3D content, which is more and more in demand for augmented reality and gaming industry applications. The startup’s technology enables users to turn any 2D image into a 3D model automatically, without requiring any special skills or experience in 3D modelling. The AI takes care of everything, producing high-quality 3D models that can be used in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), virtual try-ons, the metaverse or even as an NFT.
3D modelling combined with augmented reality is bringing huge benefits to the retailer industry, thanks to this technology, brands can increase their sales and improve their metrics. While people used to walk around in the malls and select a shop that looked the most appealing to them, they are now roaming the webpages and searching the e-commerce sites where they expect to find the best experience.
With a 3D model, a customer can choose what part of the object they’d like to see. Zoom in or out? Rotate the object? View it in motion? Try it on? All these features help increase key metrics like conversion and retention rate while saving thousands of dollars in photoshootings. Alpha AR is one of the best options for retailers thinking to bring this technology to their business, providing high quality 3D models, with personalised customer service and at substantially lower rates versus other substitutes on the market.
“We are excited to see such strong interest in our company and technology, our objective for the next years is to be a leading force behind the metaverse,” said Alpha AR CEO and Co-Founder Madis Alesmaa.
The metaverse is not only about entertainment, it’s a combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality and video where users “live” within a digital universe. The promise of the metaverse is to allow a greater overlap of our digital and physical lives in wealth, socialisation, productivity, shopping and entertainment.
So as the metaverse grows in popularity, the need for 3D models increases exponentially. This is where Alpha AR, founded by Madis Alesmaa, Rait-Eino Laarmann and Gholamreza Anbarjafari, comes in, to satisfy a need in the market with their state-of-the-art AI algorithms and sophisticated hybrid model that can quickly create cost effective 3D models for a wide range of customers. This represents a huge advantage for 3D modelling and for the metaverse as a whole, as it allows to create richer and more immersive experiences faster and more cheaply than ever before.
With the help of Alpha AR’s technology, top brands and companies around the world can now create digital twins for their physical retail locations. The startup is working closely with Meta, Farfetch, Renault, VivaTech, Publicis Conseil, WANNA, PwC, Threedium, Plug and Play and many other well known leading global retail and fashion brands. These Virtual Reality reimagined spaces and objects can be used for marketing, product display or even dressing up as if you were in any store.
As the metaverse rapidly expands, so does the demand for innovative startups that can help meet its needs. In light of this, Alpha AR has a great future ahead; the nominations and awards it has won are testimony to its innovation and ability to meet customer demands. The company has the ambition to become a leading provider of automated 3D modelling software, working closely with its customers across industries to make the metaverse a reality in the years to come.
About AlphaAR
Alpha AR is an Estonian based Startup founded in 2018 by Madis Alesma and Rait-Eino Laarmann. Alpha´s technology enables users to turn any 2D image into a 3D model automatically, without requiring any special skills or experience in 3D modelling.
About Zaka Startups
ZAKA Startups is a private pre-seed and seed venture capital company. It is focused on early-stage software driven investments across the whole EU and US with primary focus on CEE, DACH and Baltics. Current portfolio consists of 12 investments in the field of AI, Analytics, B2B SaaS, Gaming, Consumer apps and Crypto. ZAKA operates primarily from Prague and Bratislava with scouts in Berlin and Baltic region.
About Curiosity
Curiosity is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm, focusing on early-stage investments in AI-driven software companies in the Benelux, Nordics and Baltics. The firm was founded in 2021 by experienced investors Herman Kienhuis (McKinsey, SanomaDigital, KPN Ventures, River Venture Partners) and Maurice Beckand Verwee (Walvis Participaties, Crosspring, River Venture Partners). Curiosity Early Stage Fund Cooperatief U.A. is registered with the Dutch Financial Authority (AFM) as an alternative investment fund.
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