One of Europe’s top AI researchers grew $13 million seeds to break the model’s “Holy Grail”

From Openai’s 4o to stable diffusion, AI foundation models that create realistic images from text prompts are now abundant. In contrast, basic models that can generate a complete, coherent 3D online environment from a text prompt are simply emerging.

Still, the question is, when these models are readily available. Today, Matthias Niessner, one of Europe’s most prominent AI 3D model researchers, is taking an entrepreneurial leave from him. Visual Computing & AI Lab I found a startup working in the area at the Institute of Technology Munich. Spyal.

Previously co-founder of Synthesia, a realistic AI avatar startup It’s worth $2.1 billionNiessner has garnered an extraordinarily large seed round for a $13 million European startup. The round was led by prominent early stage investors in Europe (UIPATH supporters, Peak Games, etc.), with speed investment and participation from several well-known angels.

Its round size is even more impressive when taking into account that Spaitial doesn’t have much to show the world other than the recently released ones Teaser Video A text prompt shows how 3D rooms can be generated.

But then there is the technical team that Niessner assembled. Ricardo Martin-Brualla, previously working on Google’s 3D Teleconference platform It is now called beamand David Novotney, who spent six years in Meta, where he led the company. 3D asset generation project from text.

Their collective expertise will give them a chance to fight in a space already containing some competitors with similar focus on photorealism. There was Odyssey and raised $27 million Chasing entertainment use cases. But there is World Laba startup founded by AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li and Already valued at over $1 billion.

Niessner thinks this is still mostly competitive compared to what exists in other types of basic models, but also regarding the “bigger vision” he and others are pursuing.

“I don’t just want to have a 3D world. I want this world to act like a real world. I want to exchange it and (you) do something.

Video games to the real world

No one is actually cracking, even if the demand for a photorealistic 3D environment is. The promise of “trillion dollars” opportunities from digital twins to augmented reality seems large enough to excite VCs, but it is ambiguous and multifaceted, and multifaceted enough to understand strategy for the market. The most obvious use case is video games creation, but these models include real-world use in fields such as entertainment applications, 3D visualization used for structures, and ultimately robotic training.

Niessner hopes to bypass the issue by granting developers a Foundation Model license and devising downstream applications for their specific uses. He also enlisted former Kazoo executive Lu Krogers, the fourth co-founder of Palo Alto while he was a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University.

One of the first tasks regarding Spaitial’s roadmap is to identify partners that can work with previous models compared to models that need to wait for higher quality.

“I want to work with at least some of my partners,” Niessner said.

Compared to other well-funded AI startups, Spaitial is making money on its agenda. But first, you need to spend it on both calculations and employment. In the latter case, its focus is not on quantity, but on quality. According to Niessner, “The team won’t grow into hundreds of people any time soon. It’s not just that it’s not happening, it’s not necessary.”

Instead, Niessner and his co-founders are working on creating larger, more interactive 3D spaces, for example, that glass can realistically crush. This unlocks what Niessner calls “Holy Grail.” This means you can enter the 10-year-old text and create your own video game in 10 minutes.

In his view, this ambitious goal is more attainable than what might actually look like a low, bone-hard fruit. Create3D Objects – Most gaming platforms have strict control over what third parties can add. That, of course, unless they decide to build it themselves. Maybe Roblox. But by then, Spaitial may be busy replacing CADs instead. The next chapter in the 3D generation begins.