A French startup named Presti is revolutionizing product photography in the furniture industry by leveraging generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Traditionally, furniture brands have incurred substantial costs for photo shoots when launching new collections, a process that is not only cumbersome but also expensive. Presti aims to address this issue by transforming single product images into realistic lifestyle photos.
Image source: The image is AI-generated, provided by the image licensing service Midjourney.
Presti was established in November 2022 and recently completed a $3.5 million seed round led by the globally renowned tech investment firm Partech. The company's co-founder and CEO, Nabil Toumi, stated that they had engaged in in-depth discussions with 50 potential users and found that most furniture companies faced lengthy and expensive processes in creating product visuals, with a lack of simple and effective solutions.
Traditional product photography requires renting high-end houses and transporting furniture, leading to significant logistics costs. Toumi revealed that many furniture brands spend hundreds of thousands to millions of euros annually on this. Presti's AI model is based on Stable Diffusion XL, which has been retrained and adjusted specifically for generating product images in the furniture industry.
To enhance the accuracy of generated images, Presti has built a dataset containing over 75,000 high-quality furniture photos. This dataset provides strong support for the model's learning process. Additionally, Presti offers the functionality to add accessories to the generated product photos, such as cushions on a sofa, which cast realistic shadows, avoiding the stiffness typical of traditional software processing.
Although Presti's technology primarily targets medium-sized furniture companies, it has also established a strategic partnership with one of France's largest furniture retailers, Maisons du Monde. This innovative product may pose challenges to freelance photographers, and whether it can fully replace professional photographers in terms of creativity and personalization remains to be seen.
Presti is significantly reducing the cost of product photography in the furniture industry through its unique AI technology, helping brands showcase their products more efficiently. With the development of this technology, furniture companies will be able to launch new products more easily in the future, further driving the digital transformation of the industry.
Key Points:
🌟 Presti uses generative AI to transform single product images into realistic lifestyle photos, thereby reducing the photography costs for furniture companies.
💰 The company has just completed a $3.5 million seed round, with investment from global tech investment firm Partech.
🖼️ Presti enhances the accuracy of product image generation by training on a unique dataset and can add accessories and various material options.
