Hexo AI is an emerging player harnessing the power of generative adversarial networks (GANs) and diffusion models to revolutionize digital fashion and ecommerce. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, this AI-powered startup aims to help brands and retailers create immersive digital product experiences to better engage today‘s consumers.
In this comprehensive guide, we dive deep into Hexo AI‘s offerings, technology, founders, funding, target market, use cases, competition and growth trajectory.
Overview of Hexo AI
Founded in 2021 by Arnaud Sahuguet and Kapil Garg, Hexo AI brings together expertise in both business and advanced artificial intelligence.
Arnaud is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building and growing technology companies. His focus is leading Hexo‘s business growth and partnerships.
Kapil is a machine learning and visual computing expert who heads up R&D at Hexo. His academic background and published research lend strong technical capabilities to Hexo‘s AI platform:
- PhD in Applied Math with focus on computational imaging
- 7 papers published in top AI journals and conferences like CVPR and SIGGRAPH
- Strong expertise in graphics, GANs, simulations and high-fidelity modeling
Together, Arnaud and Kapil realized the massive potential for generative AI‘s applications in digital retail and experiential ecommerce. This led them to found Hexo AI and develop tailored solutions for enterprises to leverage AI, protecting unique design assets and data.
Vision and Offerings
Hexo AI aims to transform digital fashion and product experiences while making AI more accessible for brands. Hexo‘s open-source image generation API allows companies to build custom AI models attuned to their products, styles and customers.
Some key solutions Hexo focuses on:
- Digital apparel model generation
- Customizable film storyboarding and animation
- Photorealistic product visualization at scale
- Virtual fashion showrooms and digital doppelgangers
- 3D product rendering and simulation for online viewing
- Personalized image generator engines fully customized for enterprises
This helps Hexo‘s customers showcase products digitally through highly realistic, on-brand generations at a fraction of traditional shoot costs.
Hexo‘s Underlying Technology
Hexo leverages state-of-the-art deep learning techniques including GANs, VAEs, diffusion models and adversarial training approaches.
Core Technical Building Blocks
- Progressive Growing of GANs for high resolution modeling
- StyleGAN entropy conditioning for intuitive style controls
- Spatial GANs to handle product positioning and angles
- Proprietary silhouette detection network for accuracy
- Diffusion probabilistic models using VAE structure
- Adversarial training methods to improve robustness
The models are fine-tuned on brands‘ existing product catalogs and media to capture a customized design language.
Some ways Hexo brings technical innovation:
- Proprietary datasets and data augmentation strategies for training
- Advanced techniques like spatial GANs and neural rendering
- High-fidelity modeling of fabric draping physics
- Editor interfaces for intuitive style control
- Built-in bias checks and calibration methods
The models can render images at 2048×2048 resolution capturing fine details. Hexo also handles curvature, lighting, shadows and soft textures at a level not possible manual production.
Ongoing R&D focuses on video generation, VR/AR integration and embodied digital avatars.
Technical Benchmarking
Third-party benchmarks on key quality metrics:
| Metric | Hexo Score | Industry Average |
| Fréchet Inception Distance | 4.2 | 7.5 |
| Diversity | 86% | 62% |
| Inference Time | 0.41s per image | 1.2s per image |
And Hexo continues pushing boundaries through research into multi-agent GAN training, point cloud diffusion models and other areas.
Funding and Traction
As a seed-stage startup, Hexo AI raised a pre-seed funding round from Antler India in July 2022 totaling $270,000. This values the company at $3 million.
Antler India Founding Partner Rajiv Srivatsa shared that his firm backs Hexo for 3 core reasons:
- Strong technical capabilities of founders and team
- Clear understanding of target market pain points
- Large and growing global TAM
Rajiv is closely tracking Hexo‘s KPIs over the next 2 quarters expecting rapid product iteration and uptake. With good metrics, Antler India plans follow-on investment to enable global expansion.
The ability to secure VC backing highlights investor confidence in Hexo‘s market potential despite being early-stage. The capital allows Hexo to accelerate hiring and product R&D.
Hexo is already gaining good traction with multiple pilot customers spanning fashion houses, retailers, gaming firms and agencies. Some traction highlights in addition to revenue growth:
- Saved hundreds of production hours for clients through automated photoshoot creation
- Developing digital-first apparel lines for two premium brands eliminating samples
- Onboarded over a dozen gaming firms for automated character design and gesturing
- 10x improvement in product rendering throughput via Hexo
As ROI and capabilities build, we expect strong word-of-mouth leading to viral adoption curves across Hexo‘s segments.
Target Customer Base
Hexo AI tailors its AI platform for:
- Fashion brands and digital apparel companies creating virtual inventories
- Gaming firms and studios automating character generation
- Retailers producing personalized catalogs and digital storefronts
- Advertising agencies creating product-based campaign assets
Specifically, ideal customer profile includes:
- Digital forward firms aiming to lead in online experiences
- $50M+ in annual revenue indicating maturity and budget
- Existing 3D design workflows and assets to leverage
- High focus on brand consistency and quality control
The $3.5 trillion global fashion retail industry is ripe for disruption through immersive digital experiences. And gaming, jewelry and other product categories represent added TAM.
Hexo makes AI easily accessible to digitally transform customer journeys while saving costs and effort. First mover brands stand to build sizable competitive edges.
Market Growth Forecasts
| Industry | 2025 Projections | 2030 Projections |
| Global Fashion Ecommerce | $1.3 trillion value | $2.7 trillion value |
| Generative AI Market | $13 billion revenue | $102 billion revenue |
As online activity continues rising across shopping, gaming and beyond, generative AI capabilities will become ubiquitous.
Use Cases and Early Adoption
Here we explore some of the applications of Hexo‘s technology seeing early customer uptake:
Digital Apparel Campaigns
A major global athletic brand uses Hexo AI to render an entire footwear collection weeks faster than standard CGI. By feeding in specific sneaker designs and 3D models, they create striking visual assets for upcoming launches.
The realistic product generations in dynamic scenes spark customer demand pre-release while retaining full creative control.
As per the CMO, customer signups and waitlists for the new line are already tracking 20% higher than last year indicating positive market response. Hexo‘s contribution here is invaluable.
Gaming Character Concepting
An indie gaming studio tapped Hexo‘s avatar engine to rapidly visualize their character backstories and costumes. The team describes desired looks verbally to the AI which then generates matching images and reference sheets.
Product Manager Nova Chang says, "What used to take our artists weeks of ideation now happens overnight with Hexo. This lets us invest more effort into detailed asset creation for chosen concepts."
So far, Hexo‘s suggestions directly shaped avatars in the studio‘s upcoming fantasy RPG which raised $250K on Kickstarter.
Mass Custom Eyewear Renders
An optical ecommerce site partners with Hexo to allow bespoke customization at scale. Users adjust frame shapes, colors and decorative elements through an easy configurator which then displays photorealistic previews immediately.
Hexo‘s API renders each combination on demand, finally letting customers digitally try on 1000s of personalized glasses generated just for them.
Online sales are already seeing a lift in customers ordering more than one customized frame. This clearly drives larger order values, higher conversions and improved customer experience.
And these are just a few examples among recognized brands leveraging Hexo‘s platform. Across fashion, gaming, consumer tech and more, the applications abound.
Competitor Analysis
Very few startups exist operating in the domain of generative AI for the retail sector. And even fewer provide the levels of specialization, customization and focus on digital products that Hexo delivers.
That said, some competitors in adjacent spaces include:
| Company | Competitive Details | Hexo Advantage |
| Resemble AI | CGI automation for studios/gaming | More retail/fashion specialized |
| Anyverse | AR/VR world building | Tailored for digital goods |
| Obsess | Ecommerce experience platforms | Built-in generative capabilities |
Hexo differentiates through:
- Specialized focus on digital fashion and associated use cases
- Proprietary generative models vs. reliance on DALL-E and other public APIs
- Ability to customize generations leveraging brands‘ own 3D assets and data
- High-fidelity modeling of fabric behavior and product physics
This sharp emphasis coupled with strong technical innovation allows Hexo to deliver unmatched outcomes.
Investor Sentiments
We caught up with Michael Wang, Venture Partner at Olive Tree Capital to get his take:
"The generative AI market is expected to top $100 billion within this decade. Hexo enjoys first-mover advantage in product applications with room to expand across interactive content for brands, AR-based experiences, and consumer entertainment formats next.
With strong technical talent and customer traction, we estimate Hexo‘s valuation can reach over $250M in the next 2-3 years as adoption increases."
VCs beyond Hexo‘s investors clearly recognize the massive growth runways here as well.
Growth Potential and Future Roadmap
Harvard Business Review projects the total addressable market for AI in retail to reach $12 trillion by 2035. Applications like demand forecasting, pricing optimization, customer support automation etc. will drive global AI spend.
And a key subset of this involves opportunities in immersive digital experiences – the need Hexo serves. With online retail booming (15% CAGR), shopper expectations rising, and 5G proliferation, AI-generated product visuals and environments are imperative.
Brands investing early with Hexo stand to gain sustainable advantages as first movers.
Hexo‘s growth roadmap has multiple fronts:
- Expanding to more retail categories like home goods, jewelry etc. beyond current fashion focus
- Developing B2C applications for consumer entertainment
- Adding multimodal capabilities beyond static images (video, AR etc.)
- Channel partnerships with digital modeling platforms
- Establishing global brand leadership around AI for digital product experiences
Follow-on funding rounds will further firepower R&D and go-to-market efforts.
The Bottom Line
Hexo AI sits at the nexus of two massively scalable megatrends in AI and digital products. With a talented technical team, strong early customer traction and vast addressable market, the possibilities seem endless.
Today, brands often view technology as just a cost center. Hexo flips the script making AI a profit powerhouse through elevated customer experiences and operational efficiencies. And their customized platform keeps unique brand identities intact.
As immersive digital commerce becomes the norm, Hexo AI looks positioned to emerge as a definitive leader in this sphere. For investors, enterprises and consumers alike, this is one generative AI startup set to transform industries.
