Matthias Niessner, a leading AI 3D model researcher, has co-founded SpAItial after leaving his role at the Technical University of Munich. The startup aims to develop AI foundation models that generate realistic 3D environments from text prompts. Niessner secured a remarkable $13 million in seed funding, led by Earlybird Venture Capital, despite SpAItial not having extensive products yet. Key team members, like Ricardo Martin-Brualla from Google and David Novotny from Meta, bring significant experience to compete in a nascent but rapidly evolving industry with existing competition from companies like Odyssey and World Labs.
Now one of Europe's most prominent AI 3D model researchers, Matthias Niessner, has taken an entrepreneurial leave of absence from his visual computing & AI lab to found SpAItial.
Niessner has raised an unusually large seed round for a European startup of $13 million, led by Earlybird Venture Capital, despite SpAItial only having a teaser video.
Their collective expertise will give them a fighting chance in a space that includes competitors focused on photorealism, like Odyssey and World Labs.
Niessner thinks this is still little competition compared to what exists for other types of foundation models, but also regarding 'the bigger vision' he and others are pursuing.
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