Nfinite

New York,  NY 
United States
https://www.nfinite.app/

• Booth: 8024

Powerful, customizable imagery that brings products to life, all powered by Nfinite.

Nfinite is the leading e-merchandising platform that empowers brands retailers to grow their business and deliver better customer experiences through powerful, customizable visual content.  The Nfinite Platform makes it easy to create, display, and manage unlimited product visuals using cutting-edge 3D CGI technology, making high-quality visual content more affordable, adaptable, and faster to create.
 

Why work with us?

• Customer success:  we work with three of the top five global retailers and many of the leading brands
• Powerful technology:  create brand-aligned product images on our platform with the click of a button
  
• Get started fast:  choose from thousands of templates, or create new ones just for your company
• No CGI expertise required:  setup is done by our team of experts so you can start creating images fast

 Press Releases

• Nfinite bags $100M to give e-commerce 3D flair (Dec 05, 2022)

  When buying online, you don’t get the opportunity to pick up items and look at them, but Nfinite is working to change the way products are visualized online so they seem more real.

  The company, headquartered in France, has developed a SaaS-based visual e-merchandising platform with tools for creating 3D images for e-commerce. Based on nfinite’s performance in the past year, this is an area ripe for both e-commerce and venture capital investors.

  Here’s why: The company grew 10 times in annual recurring revenue in the last year and was adopted by three of the world’s top five global retailers, Alexandre de Vigan, nfinite founder and CEO, told TechCrunch. And, the company announced $100 million in Series B funding Tuesday, which quickly follows a $15 million Series A round announced in February.

  The new round was led by Insight Partners and included participation from existing investor US Venture Partners and gives nfinite a total of $130 million in venture-backed funding since the company was founded in 2017.

  Back then, de Vigan and his team started the company to provide better online visual experiences for real estate, creating computer-based imagery to sell apartments. A year later, they realized there was a bigger market in e-commerce and shifted focus there to increase traffic and sales. So instead of showcasing an apartment, its imagery was used for pieces of furniture. Over the next couple of years, nfinite scaled its platform through different industries and officially launched the version it is today in 2021.

  De Vigan explained that with e-commerce forecasted to grow 50% to reach sales of $7.4 trillion in the next four years, the only touch point is product visualization.

  “Consumers want more and more, yet e-commerce customers struggle with legacy static photos,” he added. “We set out to build a SaaS e-merchandising platform to create unlimited visuals via a desktop so you can showcase your products. Our mission is for shoppers to have a better understanding of the product and more assurance to shop online.”

  He went on to say that a photo is “frozen in time,” it can’t be updated or customized, but through the use of computer-generated imagery, it can be made into 3D so that it can be a living visual that is both customizable and updatable.

  For example, you can take a sofa, showcase it in a living room and then change the background for the season or target it toward trends. The impact is better imagery to drive more metrics of the product, meaning more conversion and less rate of return, and saving money for customers. De Vigan estimates, on average, double-digit savings and an improvement in metrics for its e-commerce customers.

  In addition, nfinite is also providing visual assets that are compatible with both Web 2.0 and web3 applications so as the future potential of the metaverse is realized, e-commerce customers will already have that capability.

  Now that the company has laid the foundation on how to automate 3D imagery on scale, de Vigan intends to deploy the new funding into scaling nfinite’s sales and marketing teams. The company started in Europe with half of its R&D and marketplace in France and now its customer-facing operations are in the U.S. In 2021, the company didn’t have any customers in the U.S. and now the region accounts for 80% of the company’s revenue and 40% of the logos.

  The company’s employee base grew to 100 from 40 a year ago, and de Vigan is planning to have 250 employees over the next 12 months. It also is delivering hundreds of thousands of images that will be in the millions in the next few years.

  “E-merchandising is the next revolution of e-commerce for us, and therefore, the next phase is to scale within that category in the U.S., Europe and Asia so we become the standard,” he added.

  Meanwhile, other companies have also found some venture capital love for their approaches to merchandising. For example, Lucky raised $3 million for its plug-in-play API for Shopify businesses while Singapore-based Trax took in $640 million in Series E funding for its technology to manage store shelves.

  As part of the investment, Rebecca Liu-Doyle, managing director at Insight Partners, has now joined the nfinite board.

  “nfinite is redefining the e-merchandising space with a platform that enables high-quality visual content to be produced at scale — and the largest, most innovative online retailers are already taking note,” she said in a statement. “The company has incredible growth potential and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with Alex and the nfinite team to help them bring it to fruition.”

• This Lawyer Turned Entrepreneur Raised $130 Million To Help Brands Sell More Online (Dec 05, 2022)

  Alexandre de Vigan started out as a lawyer helping to manage M&A transactions before leaping into the fray with his own startup.

  On the Dealmakers Show he shared his big lessons from working in mergers and acquisitions and what it is really like to become a founder. Including fundraising, and the journey to finding product market fit. Plus, his take on marketing tech, and the future of merchandising.

  Startups Through The Lens Of A M&A Attorney

  Alexandre de Vigan was born to an American mother and French father in France. 

  As a serial entrepreneur, his father provided a lot of early insights into what the future would hold. Both the ups and downs. Though this did not deter him, Alexandre will tell you that nothing really prepares you for what it is really like in the driver’s seat. 

  One big takeaway he gained from watching his father in business was that whether things worked out successfully or not, you always needed a lawyer. He also saw a gap in the lack of what the lawyers knew about business. 

  Naturally he went on to study both business and law. Then after business school he became a M&A attorney. 

  Not many startup entrepreneurs have the advantage of coming into business with this background. 

  Among the lessons he is able to share from this experience working with big funds and on big deals include:

  • Understanding that these deals are very fragile
  • An appreciation for being humble in the process
  • Even after you’ve signed a deal, it doesn’t mean that it is a done deal

  After four years in this role Alexandre says he began to get frustrated. He was being sought out to give all the advice, yet had no control over the operations or outcomes. He didn’t feel that he was having enough impact. So, determined he would have to just quit his job and make the leap into taking the reins as a business owner himself.

  Despite having seen it from the outside, Alexandre de Vigan says that the reality of entrepreneurship has been much harder than anticipated. It’s painful, but “no pain, no gain.”

  In fact, his top advice today is “don’t quit.” He says that everything takes time, and you will have to be relentless, and keep learning on the way. Success may not come easy or immediately, but if you want a great adventure, and the potential for a great outcome, you should do it. He advises to pursue your dream, but be agile in how you achieve it.

  Pivoting & Iterating Through The Desert

  Both fundraising and finding product market fit are both parts of the puzzle that can take time to get right. 

  In Alexandre’s case it took five long years of pivoting and iterating to nail product market fit for his startup, Nfinite. 

  It started out as a real estate marketplace, with the idea of becoming the equivalent of Zillow or Trulia in Europe. He soon found that to make a difference they needed better imagery. So, he shut the first attempt down, and dedicated his efforts to digital imagery in real estate.

  That worked, but the market was too small. So, they leveraged that technology for use by retailers. Then they had to move from a transactional model to something which was more sustainable and profitable. 

  Then, just when they seemed to have nailed it, the COVID lockdowns hit. Retailers got hit hard, and capital was hard to come by. 

  Still he says that you only fail when you quit. They kept on going. Today, Nfinite is a e-merchandising platform on a mission to empower retailers to improve their online presence to increase sales. Which is accomplished by enabling them to create unlimited product visuals leveraging next-generation 3D and CGI technology. 

  Of course, everytime you advance to a bigger vision, it also requires more investment, and more capital to be raised. Which can also require some pivoting and iterating. In the first few years he says that they got rejected by everyone. Including angel investors, family offices, and VCs. For three years of daily investor meetings they weren’t getting anywhere fast. Then it all came together. 

  Still, Alexandre warns that it’s not done until the money is in the bank. They even had one investor leave them hanging after the first of a three tranche funding agreement. 

  To date, they have now raised $130M through their Series B round. 

  Storytelling is everything which is something that Alexandre de Vigan was able to master. Being able to capture the essence of what you are doing in 15 to 20 slides is the key. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) where the most critical slides are highlighted.

  Europe Versus The US For Startup Fundraising

  While Europe has certainly done a lot of catching up in recent years, there is certainly a big gap in the startup ecosystem.

  While startups and entrepreneurship have become a much more acceptable career path, Alexandre says that scale up startups are more popular. Funds there are a little more risk averse, and that stage suits them better. The same applies to attracting high level talent.

  Whereas in the US, investors seem much more willing to get involved in early stage startups, and provide more capital. In the case of Nfinite, he credits their success with raising capital in the US to them having US customers. Which now make up around 60% of their revenues.

  Nfinite has now grown to a team of 150 people. With remote teams spread from Europe to the US, and Asia. While that can make managing company culture more challenging for those that weren’t born as cloud native startups, he says they champion this by hiring local leaders with shared values, and getting everyone together in person as often as possible. 

• Nfinite Featured in Coresight Research Report: Retailers Increasingly Turning to Computer-Generated Imagery to Improve Ecommerce Experiences (Dec 05, 2022)
  SAN FRANCISCO — 

  Nfinite, the leader in 3D visualization and e-merchandising for retailers, partnering with Coresight Research, today announced the release of the report, “CGI Provides Benefits for Retail That Traditional Photography Cannot Match.”

  The research, which features Nfinite, is part of Coresight Research’s Innovator Intelligence series, which focuses on emerging companies disrupting traditional retail and fueling innovation across the retail value chain. In the report, Coresight Research shares that retailers are increasingly turning to computer-generated imagery (CGI) to improve merchandising and meet the rapidly growing demand for visual content to sell and market products online.

  The report also discusses the cost and time savings associated with CGI compared to traditional photography. The report highlights that using CGI is 63% quicker than traditional photography in producing product visuals and is 50% more carbon efficient than traditional photography.

  “Advances in 3D technology are changing the way online retailers create images and deliver content while paying attention to environmental impact,” noted Deborah Weinswig, founder and CEO of Coresight Research. “Producing visuals and product content can be expensive and time-consuming. We are excited about photorealistic CGI, which, aside from cost savings, can have potential positive impact on driving shopper engagement and conversion while reducing returns by providing customers a better sense of what they are purchasing.”

  The report spotlights a customer case study from Nfinite. A multi-channel home and living retailer partnered with Nfinite’s online merchandising solution and saw improved overall sales, page visits and add-to-cart rates from product pages. The customer also shared they saved 85% in per-image production costs compared with the previous solution.

  “We are thrilled to be featured in Coresight Research’s latest report,” said Nfinite founder and CEO, Alexandre de Vigan. “The research supports that the future of ecommerce will be highly visual and require entirely new technologies to meet shoppers’ demands. We are proud to be considered a leader in helping retailers leverage CGI and 3D technologies to improve business outcomes.”    

• Stepping Into The Metaverse: How Retailers Can Prepare (Dec 05, 2022)

  Gartner declared in 2018, “An efficient and customer-friendly online commerce experience is no longer a differentiator—it is mandatory.”

  But retail is changing so fast that even this advice is reaching its expiration date. Soon, a presence in the metaverse will be an absolute necessity, and retailers stranded in today’s e-commerce environment will be left behind. That, at least, is what is being argued by proponents of the “embodied internet,” a decentralized Web3 and the digital world of immersive experiences.

  The Current State Of Retail

  Retail has moved from the physical store, with its human contact and tangible goods, to the remote processes of mail order and telesales and then, more recently, to the even more distant and abstract digital world.

  Many retailers, though, are still struggling to reconnect with customers and sustain brand loyalty. IDC says more than half of retailers (download required) consider e-commerce processes the most challenging for their businesses, while 94% regard customer retention as a key performance indicator.

  As the next stage in retail’s life cycle, the metaverse offers the promise of closer links to customers and higher service levels, including greater personalization which, today, seldom extends beyond discounts and product recommendations. Enabling buyers to try out clothes and other goods, such as furniture or cars, virtually and in three dimensions—possibly even with haptic, touch technology—could also reduce returns.

  According to the U.S. National Retail Federation, about one-fifth of today’s online purchases are returned, meaning billions of dollars worth of goods whose value is lost while they are in sales limbo, plus the hidden costs of mark-downs, inventory shortages and extra labor.

  One major potential reason for the high return rate is BORIS: buying online, return in-store. Sizes, color matches, context and style could be built into the data underpinning the customer’s immersive experience so accurately and engagingly that returns fraud is ruled out and BORIS is pointless. The metaverse makes customers a part of the value chain, investing them in the brand by increasing their confidence in the choices they make.

  How Retailers Can Prepare For The Metaverse

  Changing online habits will almost certainly benefit suppliers, but it will also put them under new pressures. Where one photograph of a product in a catalog was enough, for example, three to five became the norm online, followed by a video. The cost of doing business in the metaverse will include developing 3-D digital assets where traditional photography once sufficed.

  As e-commerce aims to turn browsers into buyers, it is critical for the online experience to be seamless and easy. A recent survey showed that revealed that many customers were frustrated by slow-to-load or difficult-to-navigate web pages. To that end, to succeed in the metaverse, metastores will need to be welcoming and easy to shop.

  But before customers can move around the metaverse as easily as drifting around the mall, developers must perfect a decentralized structure capable of interacting with whichever extended reality (XR) platform customers favor.

  Beyond this interoperability, the people building the metaverse still have to overcome various issues relating to cybersecurity, privacy, regulations and fraud protection. Between them, developers, suppliers and retailers will have to decide whether and how to share the sensitive data used to build 3-D models of their products.

  The most likely means of protecting intellectual property will be blockchain authentication. The hope is that the environmental gains from more agile production, slimmer inventories and fewer physical goods in transit will outweigh the data-processing impact.

  The Metaverse Evolution

  The metaverse concept has been around longer than Gen-Z customers, whose expectations and values will drive its development. Their willingness to shift from screen-based e-commerce to immersive buying, playing and communicating will depend on freeing the metaverse from the burdens that could limit accessibility and create exclusion while providing a community that is flexible and open to all.

  Professional services giant PwC sees the development of the metaverse as “an evolution, not a revolution.” It is already splitting into new species of retail.

  Brands such as IKEA, Zara and Selfridges have chosen lower-risk routes into the metaverse that leave the customer clutching real-world products in their hands. Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Nike favor collectible, virtual products, even accepting cyber currencies and creating non-fungible tokens.

  While the metaverse is being built, bricks and mortar retail is also searching for new ways to engage the customer. Ironically, this includes the trend of “retailtainment,” the merger of retail and entertainment, often in an immersive way, that is part of the promise of the metaverse. The future of retailing is neither all online nor all metaverse; we will continue to operate in a hybrid, omnichannel world.

  When Facebook became Meta in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg expressed the hope that “within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers.” While the metaverse has some way to go before retailers are compelled to engage with it, its rapid emergence means they must plan. The trick will be to focus on the customer, not the technology.

• Nfinite honored by Accel Partners as one of the top 100 startups in Europe (Dec 05, 2022)

  This year, we’ve screened 2200+ companies across more than 25 countries to build the list of what we think are the most promising early stage cloud companies across Europe and Israel with more than $1m in ARR but not yet a unicorn. Combined, they represent 20,000 employees, have raised $8B and their employee growth rate has been above 115% in the past year. You can see the full list of companies in the full presentation.

  

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