Generative AI works well for text and images, but creating detailed 3D models of real objects remains hard. Older methods require expensive scanners, extensive manual work, or large equipment, making it tough to scale for applications like e-commerce, digital twins, robotics, and industrial research.
Solaya, a French startup, has created a mobile app that uses AI to turn smartphone videos into ready-to-use 3D models, eliminating the need for extra equipment.
The company recently raised $2 million in pre-seed funding, led by Betaworks in New York. Angel investors from NVIDIA, Adobe, Santander, and Google DeepMind also joined in. Early users like LVMH, Mattel, Karl Lagerfeld, SNCF, and Dassault Systèmes are already using the platform for 3D commerce and robotics.
The new funding will help Solaya grow its team, develop products faster, and offer affordable self-service pricing for small and medium-sized businesses.
Make capturing high-quality 3D as easy as snapping a photo
Co-founder and CEO Massimo Moretti knows a thing or two about AI and perception, with experience across both research and product. Spotting the gap in accessible 3D data pipelines as robotics and AR/VR took off, he brought together a team of engineers who’ve built large-scale 3D workflows for enterprise.
Solaya’s app uses AI to process mobile videos and create textured, rigged 3D models. It uses computer vision, diffusion models, and neural rendering for e-commerce, simulations, or robotics.
The main benefits are that no extra hardware is needed, the platform is flexible, and pricing for small and medium businesses is five to ten times lower than professional setups.
Unlike gaming tools like Unity’s Polysphere or industrial scanners from Glean, Solaya is built for commerce and robotics and works with just your phone.
So, what’s next for Solaya?
After launch, the team is eyeing a big push into app stores to reach more small and mid-sized businesses, while expanding enterprise pilots with LVMH and Mattel.
In the short term, Solaya aims to grow its user base by 8x by 2026 and launch robotics SDKs. In the long run, it hopes to become the main 3D data platform for physical AI, supporting everything from warehouse automation to virtual try-ons as the market nears $188 billion.
