In particular, it allows Apple to conceive and see its products in the manner the company wants. “Much like the gaming industry, the 3D and e-commerce space enjoyed a strong tailwind, becoming a must-have for any organization … Hundreds of millions of users use our technology and engage with our content on a daily basis.This, according to Borchers, gives a distinct advantage to the company. “Our main competition is animation and graphics studios that use a manual and outdated tech stack,” Atias said. In turn, 38% of marketer respondents said they are using AR in 2022, up 15 percentage points from 2017’s 23%. Some 48% of respondents to a McKinsey survey said they’re interested in using “metaverse” technology (i.e., AR and VR) to shop in the next five years. There might indeed be a growing interest in virtual retail venues, particularly those of the AR variety. Already, he says, 60-employee Hexa has managed to win the business of over 40 brands, including Amazon, Macy’s, Logitech and Crate & Barrel - and raise $27.2 million in total capital. “A lot of effort has been done to solve this aspect, as well, and today, Hexa is able to align the 3D asset with the source imagery and thus ensure the asset complies at a pixel and voxel level.”ĪR and VR shopping experiences might not have reached most people (at least according to one survey), but Atias believes there’s a large market to be won. “Since we need to comply with the clients’ server requirements and verify our 3D assets are identical to the source imagery we’ve been provided, a lot of manpower needs to be invested to answer the scale of Hexa’s production,” Clark said via email. Hexa also provides a range of 3D viewer apps for customers to use, including ones for the web and AR, plus code that can be used to insert models into social media posts and video games. Throughout the process, customers can provide feedback directly on the models, ask questions of Hexa’s engineers and prep the models for use on the web or in AR and VR experiences. Then the company’s engineers, using AI-assisted tools, create 3D assets and models from the images. Hexa customers can upload an image or have Hexa’s API automatically fetch images from a website. So what differentiates Hexa? Atias says it’s the expertise on - and robustness of - its service. They also can manage and assess the impact of their 3D content through our platform.” “The major value for our client is that they gain the ability to scale quality 3D projects in a short amount of time. “With a combination of AI-powered technology and human artistry, Hexa can help brands and retailers to create, manage and distribute 3D models that can be used for a variety of use cases, including 3D models, AR experiences, lifestyle photos, 360-degree views and promotional videos,” Atias said. But he later pivoted the business into a general-purpose tech stack for VR, AR and 3D-model-viewing experiences. Atias co-launched Hexa with Ran Buchnik and Jonathan Clark first as a virtual dressing room platform aimed at bridging the massive disconnect. He - like most people - quickly came to realize that the dressing room experience translated poorly to e-commerce. Hexa’s roots can be traced back to 2015, when Atias was working in the retail industry for brands like Walmart and H&M. We conducted an early round due to tripling our customer base in 2023,” Atias told TechCrunch in an email interview. “The new funding will be used to support our existing customer expansion and keep up with the flow of new customers that are being onboarded. But HTC’s focus has increasingly shifted over the years from mobile to VR, and it evidently sees Hexa as aligned with its current - and perhaps even future - lines of business. After all, the company was once one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers - not exactly entrenched in the 3D modeling space. HTC’s participation in the round might seem curious. CEO and co-founder Yehiel Atias said that the cash will be put toward product development and expanded customer acquisition efforts well into 2023. Hexa, a 3D asset visualization and management platform, today announced that it closed a $20.5 million Series A round from Point72 Ventures, Samurai Incubate, Sarona Partners and HTC.
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