Covision Media, a Bressanone-based company specialising in 3D scanning and 3D AI technology, has exclusively revealed to EU-Startups the successful closing of its €5 million Seed funding round.
This investment will accelerate its expansion and the development and global commercialisation of its 3D scanning technology, furthering its mission to automate the large-scale production of reality-grade 3D models and drive the development of new software-driven 3D AI products.
The seed funding round was led by the Artificial Intelligence Fund of CDP Venture Capital, Euregio+, and Redstone, and The Techshop, together with a group of entrepreneurs led by Harald Oberrauch and high-profile angel investors, including the Tyrolean Business Angels Network.
“This seed funding marks a major milestone for Covision Media as we push the boundaries of 3D AI,” said Franz Tschimben, CEO and Co-founder of Covision Media. “The world is three-dimensional, and Covision Media is playing a key role in digitising it. We are excited to have the support of top-tier investors who share our vision for scaling 3D technology across industries.”
Founded in 2020 by Burkhard Güssefeld and Franz Tschimben, Covision Media is innovating 3D scanning technology by marketing AI based 3D scanners that mass produce reality-grade 3D models.
Fashion and lifestyle items like shoes, bags and accessories are being scanned by brands and retailers to integrate the 3D directly in e-commerce stores and for enabling augmented and virtual reality applications like virtual-try-on.
Customers like adidas, Inditex Group (ZARA and Massimo Dutti), GUCCI and Salomon, for example, have been able to revolutionise their 3D production and innovate their visual content creation pipelines.
Covision’s technology is also being used by photo and content creation studios who are establishing a new visual asset class with 3D, alongside photo and video. Notable customers include Quad Graphics Inc. in the U.S., NUREG in Germany, and CLX Europe in France and Italy.
Michael Brehm, Founding Partner at Redstone VC, added, “Covision is transforming how visual content is created and utilised across multiple industries. This is by far the best technology globally we have seen. We are thrilled to support their journey as they strive to develop more groundbreaking tools and products.”
The Covision Media scanning technology can also be applied to in bridging the so-called data gap in 3D machine learning. Unlike in the AI domains of text, photo and videos, Covision says there are no large, high-quality datasets available for training foundational 3D AI models.
For example, Meta is using Covision’s technology to build and launch its 3D Digital Twin Catalog. It is the world’s largest high-quality 3D model database, allowing for AI models to be trained with this dataset. According to Meta AI, the “3D reconstruction technology will democratise digital twin creation”.
Covision’s 3D scanners and technology are also leveraged by the video game industry to produce in-game assets with higher quality and faster compared to traditional methods, as well as by industrial production companies to scan their product inventories. Although CAD models exist for industrial parts, a 3D scan by Covision reportedly offers significantly enhanced material, texture, color, and appearance properties, allowing for a wide range of applications in production, marketing, and sales.
“We are excited that Covision Media is the first investment of Italy’s largest AI fund,” said Vincenzo Di Nicola, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Fund at CDP Venture Capital. “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.”
The funding will strengthen the core scanning business and accelerate the development and commercialisation of next-generation AI-powered tools and products. The goal is to enable customers to automate content generation from 3D models at scale, enhance generative AI models with advancements like ‘text-to-3D’ and ‘image-to-3D’, and expand 3D content applications.
As an integral component of the current funding round, Marco Allegretti, Partner of the Artificial Intelligence Fund at CDP Venture Capital, Ben Scheidt, Investment Director at Redstone, and Gianluca D’Agostino, Founder and Managing Partner at The Techshop will join the board of the company.
Gianluca D’Agostino, Managing Partner of The Techshop concluded: “We were impressed by the winning combination of their hardware and software technology, which enables the creation of top-quality 3D models with a wide range of applications. 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”.
The Techshop investment is supported by CDP Venture Capital SGR Digital Transition Fund – PNRR through the resources allocated by the NextGeneration EU initiative.
