The India-based startup, MetaShop, which is democratising 3D content creation for industries like E-commerce, Gaming, Real Estate, and others, announced on Oct 16th that it was selected for the Women Founders Fund.
The Women Founders Fund is a program that provides $100,000 in support, mentoring, and Google product support to female entrepreneurs running AI-based startups based in the Asia-Pacific region to successfully lead their startups and grow as leaders.
The selection criteria for this program are: ‘at least one full-time female entrepreneur among the founding members, female entrepreneurs participating in the program are fluent in English, startup headquarters located in India, Japan, or Korea, and receiving Series A investment from Seed. It is a ‘start-up with an advanced, technically feasible use of artificial intelligence, and ready for global expansion.’
This year, startups from three countries were selected: Korea, India, and Japan.
MetaShop was selected in recognition of the use of AI technology and the potential for future development of the business.
Mike Kim, Head of Google for Startups APAC, said, “I’m happy to support the Women Founders Fund to startups that are creating innovation with AI technology. I hope that we can act as a stepping stone for these startups to expand globally. We will continue to support women founders in their growth and development.
MetaShop was founded in mid-2022 by Sophiya Jagannathan (CEO) and Mukul Ingle (CTO). During COVID, they wanted to purchase furniture but faced the problem of not being able to visualise how it would look in the real world. They were frustrated by the limitation of having to visit each store in person. To tackle this challenge, they leveraged cutting-edge AI, where now anyone can simply record a video of any object on their phone and generate 3D assets instantly.
Through this innovative AI solution, an XR company can reduce their project completion time by 8x, and E-commerce companies can easily integrate AR experiences onto websites, increasing conversion rates by 35% and user engagement by 60%.
Sophiya Jagannathan, CEO of MetaShop, says, “I strongly believe that in the coming decade, everything you see digitally will be three-dimensional, from surfing online to buy furniture to chatting with your friends through avatars. You will be able to experience everything, from real-life objects/scenarios to your very own imaginary world, like the movie ‘Ready Player One,’ from the comfort of your space. At MetaShop, we aim to supercharge this next digital era by empowering businesses to provide XR experiences to millions 10x faster, while keeping in mind the market needs and evolving as we go.”
As the immediate next step, MetaShop aims to overcome the challenges of building an AI startup in India with the support of Google for Startups, with the vision to build a one-stop solution for all your 3D content creation needs from Video-to-3D, Text-to-3D all made possible by AI.
Google for Startups will host a Founders Academy for female entrepreneurs in the first half of 2024. Founders Academy provides workshops and mentoring to enhance the leadership and talent management skills of startup entrepreneurs.
