Solaya lands $2M pre-seed to scale phone-to-3D modeling
French startup Solaya has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding to expand its AI-powered mobile app that converts smartphone video into ready-to-use 3D assets. The round was led by New York-based Betaworks, with participation from angel investors affiliated with NVIDIA, Adobe, Santander, and Google DeepMind.
The company is targeting a persistent bottleneck in generative AI: producing detailed, accurate 3D models of real-world objects at scale. Traditional approaches often rely on expensive scanners, large capture rigs, or labor-intensive manual workflows—constraints that can limit adoption in areas such as e-commerce, digital twins, robotics, and industrial R&D.
From smartphone video to textured, rigged assets
Massimo Moretti, co-founder and CEO of Solaya, said the team built the product to make high-quality 3D capture as simple as taking a photo. The app processes mobile video using a mix of computer vision, diffusion models, and neural rendering, producing textured and rigged 3D models that can be deployed in commerce listings, simulations, or robotics pipelines.
Solaya says its approach removes the need for specialized hardware and aims to deliver pricing that is five to ten times cheaper than professional scanning setups, with flexibility designed for both enterprise and smaller teams.
Early enterprise users and next steps
Early users include LVMH, Mattel, Karl Lagerfeld, SNCF, and Dassault Systèmes, which are using the platform for applications spanning 3D commerce and robotics.
The new capital will be used to grow headcount, accelerate product development, and roll out more affordable self-service pricing for small and mid-sized businesses. The company also plans a broader app-store push and says it is working toward launching robotics SDKs as it expands pilots with enterprise customers.
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