Meshcapade raises $6M to train foundation models for the analysis and generation of 3D humans

Matrix leads seed round to expand Meshcapade's market-leading AI solutions that transform pictures, videos, text, and sensor data into 3D humans in the SMPL Standard body format.

TÜBINGEN, Germany, June 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Meshcapade, a startup specializing in AI solutions for modeling, analysis and synthesis of 3D digital humans in motion, announced today a $6M seed round led by Matrix with participation from a number of tech founders and investors, including Nate Mitchell (Co-Founder of Oculus), Matthew Ball (Author of "The Metaverse"), William O'Farrell (Co-Founder of BodyLabs), Andrew Hamel (Former VP Machine Learning at Amazon), Gary Bradski (CSO at OpenCV), and CLO, a provider of leading 3D clothing software. Diana Kimball Berlin of Matrix will join Meshcapade's board.

There is nothing more important to us than people. Despite the breathtaking progress in large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, today's AI systems still struggle to understand how we humans move, interact with the world, and express ourselves.

Whether it is apparel, fitness, healthcare, gaming, AR/VR, or communication, nearly every industry must understand the 3D shape and motion of their customers and be able to generate humans in motion.

Meshcapade's mission is to make technology more human by building the "digital human layer" of the internet brick by brick, supporting all business applications that must "see" or generate humans. Building around Meshcapade's patented SMPL body model provides seamless integration of high-accuracy digital humans across all verticals. Through easy to use APIs and web-based tools, Meshcapade allows users to convert images, videos, 3D scans, motion capture data, text, and measurements into 3D digital humans. Meshcapade's goal is to build best-in-class foundation models for the analysis and synthesis of 3D human motion and appearance.

Meshcapade's instant-avatar solution takes an image or video of a person in any pose and any clothing and generates a precise 3D model of their body shape and pose. Since the output is in the SMPL Standard, it can be animated in any game engine, draped with clothing, or measured for fit analysis.

With Meshcapade's breakthroughs in avatar-from-video, it is finally possible to synthesize 3D motion with nuanced and lifelike animations from two-dimensional visuals.

Meshcapade's products are powered by the SMPL Standard family of body, face, hand, and foot models, the only commercially available solutions for 3D humans that use machine learning to represent accurate body shape and motion. Trained on over one million 3D and 4D body scans, the SMPL Standard is unparalleled in its accuracy and compatible with all game engines.

Naureen Mahmood, Co-Founder and CEO of Meshcapade explains: "As our lives become increasingly digital, we have a growing need for accurate, scalable and portable 3D representations of ourselves in the virtual spaces we inhabit. Our technology is the de-facto standard for 3D humans in AI, with a myriad of companies already using SMPL. This funding round will enable us to accelerate our development of the 3D digital human foundation for every industry."

Meshcapade already has over 100 customers trusting its cutting-edge AI technology

Since its founding in 2018, Meshcapade has become the trusted supplier for 3D human technology for over 100 customers in apparel, fitness, synthetic data, AR/VR, telepresence and entertainment. Meshcapade's technology powers solutions for some of the world's largest businesses including six of the top ten NASDAQ companies, academic research labs, and a vast network of startups, making the SMPL body model the de facto standard representation of 3D humans. 

Meshcapade's business customers rely on SMPL for applications ranging from clothing sizing and virtual try-on to synthetic data generation for AI training.

Meshcapade's founders are AI pioneers in the field of 3D human shape and motion

Meshcapade is headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, Europe's hotspot for AI research and innovation and the home of Cyber Valley. In 2018, the founding team of Naureen Mahmood (CEO), Talha Zaman (CTO), and Michael J. Black (Chief Scientist) spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, where Black is also a founding Director. Mahmood and Black are pioneers in the space of 3D human body shape and motion, and co-authors of numerous scientific papers and patents in this area. In particular, they are creators of the patented SMPL body model technology. Black was previously a co-founder of Body Labs Inc., which was acquired by Amazon in 2017.

This is Meshcapade's first institutional funding round and it supports their vision to provide foundation models for human motion analysis and synthesis. Their analysis models take any data source (e.g. images, video, scans, motion capture) and output 3D avatars and text descriptions. The synthesis models generate lifelike animations from text, body shape, video, and more.

"Matrix loves founders that combine a big vision with technical depth. The Meshcapade team literally invented the technology that everyone is using in a space that will grow to touch all our lives," said Dianna Kimball Berlin, Partner at Matrix.

For more information about Meshcapade, visit meshcapade.com, create some 3D avatars at meshcapade.me, or reach out to [email protected].

About Meshcapade 

Meshcapade is a startup specializing in AI solutions for modeling, analysis and synthesis of 3D digital humans in motion. It was founded in 2018 by Naureen Mahmood, Michael J. Black and Talha Zaman as a spin-off of the Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. Since then, it has become the trusted supplier for 3D human technology for over 100 customers in apparel, fitness, synthetic data, AR/VR, telepresence and entertainment, including 6 out of the top 10 NASDAQ companies. More information via: www.meshcapade.com 

About Matrix

Matrix is a team of builders who lead concept through Series A rounds, working with product people from day one to help them win. Recent investments include Afterpay, Apartment List, Canva, Courier, CTRL-Labs, Fivetran, Flock Safety, GOAT, HubSpot, LogRocket, Markforged, Oculus, Side, Steadily, and Zendesk. Founded in 1977, the firm has seen it all—from FedEx and Apple through 65+ IPOs. Learn more at https://matrix.vc

SOURCE Meshcapade GmbH