The vast majority of ecommerce customers prefer to preview the product before purchasing it. That’s why companies like Amazon have struggled to get fashion and home accessories online in the past. A start-up based in San Francisco and Bengaluru is trying to solve this problem and has just launched a new round of funding to scale its operations.
AI and Computer Vision Startup Avatar said Friday it raised $ 45 million for its Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global and existing investor Sequoia Capital India participated. The six-year-old startup has raised around $ 55.5 million in all funding rounds, including some funded by the founder and CEO in the early years.
Avataar supports direct-to-consumer brands and e-commerce marketplaces in designing their consumer journeys with the 3D rendering of products. Companies can integrate Avataar’s plug-and-play technology into their system, which allows customers to visualize the products in their real size and feel them with the phone’s camera in their living room.
The startup currently works with a number of companies, including the two leading e-commerce marketplaces for furniture, large appliances, and other categories, said Sravanth Aluru, founder and CEO of Avataar, in an interview with TechCrunch. He declined to reveal the names of the customers, citing confidentiality agreements. (Some companies like Samsung and Pepperfry have made public accepted Collaboration with Avataar.)
In a demo, Aluru dragged multiple products – sofas and desks – from the app of a partner e-commerce marketplace into its living room and changed the color and SKUs without having to reposition the virtual items around the house. The elements can also be interactive. A virtual representation of a refrigerator enables the door to be opened and closed, for example.
Brands don’t have to make major changes to customize Avataar’s offerings. As long as the product images are available in a resolution of at least 1080p, Avataar can embroider a virtual and a 3D version of them, according to Aluru. Even for consumers using an iPhone or Android smartphone that was introduced in recent years, there’s a good chance their phone has the computing and graphics power to support viewing and interacting with virtual objects, said he.
“Since the camera is the home screen, you see a significantly higher interaction time and brands experience more than 3.5 times the sales conversion,” he said. The startup forwards the engagement information to the partner brands, who then further personalize their offerings to better serve customers.
According to Aluru, more and more companies are starting to adapt the technology as they realize the benefits it can offer. this trend is only expected to grow from here.
Without revealing the brand names, he said some smartphone companies have used Avataar’s technology to conduct virtual product launches. “Today we are integrated on most platforms. If you’re watching 3D on a large, large volume service, we are probably running it, ”he said.
The Avataar founding team. Left to right: Mayank Tiwari (CBO), Sravanth Aluru (CEO), Prashanth Aluru (Board Director), Gaurav Baid (CPO). (Image credit: Avatar)
By 2025, nearly 75% of the world’s population and almost all people who use social and communication apps will be frequent AR users, Snap said in a recent report it worked with Deloitte on. According to the report, there are already over 100 million customers who shop with AR.
According to Aluru, the startup is preparing to be at the forefront as Metaverse moves in and works with several key players in the field.
“The metaverse is already there, just not evenly distributed. Avataar.me is leading the way in providing scalability to the largest brands to enable commerce – an application with tremendous prospects in AR / VR environments, “Shailesh Lakhani, MD at Sequoia India, said in a statement.
“Working with Sravanth, Gaurav and Mayank has been a pleasure and Sequoia Capital India is pleased to repeat its commitment in its Series B round.”
The digital and digitally influenced market is expected to grow to 18 trillion US dollars by 2025 and offer a monetization opportunity of over 50 billion US dollars for the underlying platforms over the next ten years, which are the transformation of 2D to 3D retail according to industry estimates drive forward.
“For the first time in history, we are now able to see, understand, augment, and manipulate the physical reality of consumers through a live camera feed. While our patented AI / CV capabilities are applicable to all of Metaverse development, from the start we focused on redefining the consumer shopping experience, ”said Aluru.
“The platform will transform the consumer shopping experience at home on their mobile devices, through AR glasses / wearables, or even in a physical store exploring the endless corridor of a digitally-assisted catalog.”
Evan Feinberg, Partner at Tiger Global, said in a statement, “Consumers continue to seek a better e-commerce experience and Avataar’s innovative technology offers customers a powerful plug-and-play solution to meet this demand . As the digital world shifts from 2D to 3D, Avataar and its talented management team are well positioned in this fast growing market. ”
