PARIS — Covision Media closed a 5 million euro seed round to accelerate the development and commercialization of its 3D scanning and AI content creation technology.
It follows the opening in February of Covision and CLX Europe’s joint Paris-based studio, dedicated to working with brands to create realistic and moveable photos for e-commerce, social media, virtual try-on and interactive campaigns.
The round was led by CDP Venture Capital’s Artificial Intelligence Fund, Euregio+, Redstone VC and The Techshop.
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Covision cofounder Harald Oberrauch joined the round, along with the Tyrolean Business Angels Network. Fossil Group chief executive officer Franco Fogliato, Fossil Group chief digital and information officer Antonio Carriero and Ferragamo family member Emanuele Visconti are among the angel investors, as well as Andreessen Horowitz operating partner Nathaniel Barling, among others.
“This seed funding marks a major milestone for Covision Media as we push the boundaries of 3D AI,” said Covision Media cofounder and CEO Franz Tschimben. “The world is three-dimensional, and Covision Media is playing a key role in digitizing it. We are excited to have the support of top-tier investors who share our vision for scaling 3D technology across industries.”
As part of the deal, CDP Venture Capital’s Artificial Intelligence Fund partner Marco Allegretti, Redstone VC investment director Ben Scheidt and The Techshop founder and managing partner Gianluca D’Agostino will join the board.
“We are excited that Covision Media is the first investment of Italy’s largest AI fund,” said Artificial Intelligence Fund head Vincenzo Di Nicola. “Covision Media represents a prime example of a thriving Italian deep-tech company that harnesses the power of AI to develop and deliver exceptional products bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds.”
D’Agostino said The Techshop was impressed by the combination of Covision’s hardware and software technology, which enables the creation of 3D models with a wide range of applications. Meta is using the technology to build its “3D Digital Twin Catalog,” a database allowing for AI models to be trained on its images.
“The strong early traction and growing interest from major e-commerce brands and marketplaces, along with the partnership with Meta, further confirm the company’s huge potential,” D’Agostino said.
The Covision technology takes 15,000 images in eight minutes, then uses non-generative AI to compress the images into one model for CLX’s post-production. The end result is what the team calls a “digital twin” (not to be confused with NFT digital twins) because it is an exact replica of the physical object that can be manipulated on the screen.
It works well on things like handbags that tend to look flat with traditional photography, and can show how a bag hangs, folds or wrinkles with movement. Brands and retailers can integrate the 3D images directly into e-commerce for AR and VR applications.
Covision has worked with brands including Adidas, Gucci, Salomon and Inditex Group’s Massimo Dutti and Zara labels.