Ukrainian startup RefaceAI raised the round. Elon Musk used it
Ukrainian startup RefaceAI, which developed the Doublicat facial transfer application, has attracted a round of investment from several investors. The total amount of the round was not disclosed; one of the minority investors, Adventures Lab, has invested in a startup from $ 300,000 to $ 500,000, according to AIN.UA.
What does RefaceAI do?
RefaceAI develops AI-technology for the replacement of faces (face swap) on photos, gifs, videos. Simply put: in a photo or video with the face of one person, you can “pull” the face of another, given the facial expressions. Earlier, we wrote about the Doublicat application; several months after its release, it was downloaded more than 900,000 times. The technology that the startup team does is work like this:
RefaceAI was founded by Roman Mogilny, Oles Petriv and Yaroslav Boyko in 2011, then it was called Neocortext. At first, the team was engaged in machine learning, from working with text semantics to visual content. The company has now focused on its AI face-replacement technology.
The RefaceAI development office is located in Kyiv, at first 12 people worked in the company, now its staff has grown to 40 specialists.
How the technology works and where it is used?
According to the developers, unlike other face replacement applications, they do not use CGI or 3D modeling. The technology is based only on AI, it is based on the machine learning method GAN (Generative Adversary Networks).
The startup has already worked with companies from the entertainment, film, and advertising industries. For example, their technology was used in the “movie selfie” in the Multiplex application: there you could create your own photos in the image of the heroes of “Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”, “Terminator”, etc.
The company’s applications also use influencers in social networks. For example, one of the viral photos of Elon Mask was made using their Reflect application:
Yeah, I lift a little … pic.twitter.com/UAJdv8qSw1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2019
Who are the investors of RefaceAI?
The deal will be closed for several more months, and the startup has not disclosed the main investors. So far, only one investor is known – Adventures Lab. They have been operating in the Ukrainian market since the end of 2019. Their average investment check is from $ 100,000 to $ 500,000.
Where to spend the investment?
Money will be spent on finalizing products. The company also plans to expand the bizdev-team and the content team, work on new sources of monetization.
Source: ain.ua
