Is it possible in our time, when thousands and thousands of companies work in the market, to find a new niche and earn millions? It would seem that all areas of activity have long been occupied, fierce competition reigns. It turns out you can. But this is not easy. A striking example is the Texel startup, which works in the field of 3D technology. Three enthusiasts are trying to make a small revolution in the field of retail, helping customers choose clothes according to their taste and individual physical characteristics.
Mysterious 3D
Three-dimensional technology broke into our lives about 7 years ago. 3D printers, previously considered a gimmick, have become quite affordable. But people did not fully understand what to use them for. It seemed that their destiny was the manufacture of volumetric models, no more.
Sergei Klimentyev, an ordinary bank employee who received a brilliant education in Russia and the UK, was bored at work. Agree, this happens often, especially with "office plankton." But unlike his colleagues, he did not play online poker and did not watch videos about the “kote” on the Internet. Since his studies at the Higher School of Economics in London, he was occupied by Terra Incognita - the "uncharted land" of virtual reality. This area was not new, but still not actually inhabited. Its possibilities are so wide, but it has almost not found practical application.
Technology automation
“Why is 3D modeling being introduced into everyday life with a creak?” - Sergey reasoned in a similar way. And he answered himself: "Because there is not enough automation to transfer real-world objects to the virtual." Designers almost manually create objects for games, programs and demo models, spending a lot of time on this.
For Klimentyev, it seemed quite logical that 3D scanners could help in this difficult matter. However, those models that existed in our market were imperfect and worked mainly with small items. But how to transfer to a virtual environment, for example, a closet or a person?
The experiments began. Klymentyev was acquired by the announcement of a simple 3D scanner. He persuaded his girlfriend and future wife Anna to be a model. She used to have to be in a motionless (if possible) position for 40 minutes while Sergey tried to scan it from all sides. However, the results were far from perfect.
Mutually beneficial partnership
The banker and concurrently cybernetic began to study analogues in the market. He did not find anything suitable in Russia for himself. But Klimentyev got acquainted with the work of a graduate of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Moscow State University Maxim Fedyukava. An acquaintance ensued between them, which grew into a business partnership. The latter studied the possibility of transferring objects to the 3D world through photographs.
Enthusiasts decided to stop nevertheless on scanning. This technology, at the very least, has already been developed, and for working with photographs completely different resources were required, up to artificial intelligence. Many sensors and software have been tried. There was trouble with the software, nothing suitable was found. We decided to do everything ourselves. For this, Andrei Poskonin, a former student of Fedyukov, a graduate of the Moscow State University’s VMK, was invited to help. He took the post of technical director.
From a startup to a successful business project
It took about 2 years to refine 3D scanning technology and write suitable software.In 2014, the working Texel Portal device was already ready, capable of making a full-height model of any person in just a minute and transferring it to the virtual environment of a computer program. The costs were high. In addition to 800,000 rubles of own investments, $ 400,000 of investments were attracted.
But creating a device is half the battle. Young people wanted to get profit from technology, material rewards. At first, the scanner was used to make detailed models. For example, individual figures for cakes differed well. Then began the sale of equipment. A set with ready-made software was sold for $ 25,000 or leased for events. Surprisingly, the buyers were mainly from abroad. But you won’t get rich on such a scheme. It was required to find a larger application.
Clothing retail
In the end, it came to be understood that 3D scanning can be applied in the clothing business. The solution is simple. A person enters the fitting room, which is also a scanner. In a minute, its volumetric model is created and transferred to a special program. In it, the client can specify the desired parameters of style, color, fabric and other things. Taking into account its physical parameters, clothing models available in the store will be offered. Here you can pre-estimate whether the image is suitable or not. And only then try on the most liked things.
By the way, scanning is done only 1 time. Later, the virtual model can be used in retail outlets or online sites where this technology is supported. A number of large fashion chains have already become interested in the idea. Among them are S. Oliver and Marks & Spencer. The latter company even invested a $ 200,000 project.
Texel has big plans today. The startup is already valued at $ 10 million. But according to the guys, this is only the beginning. The plans include access to online clothing stores. Although in 2018 net profit amounted to 12.6 million rubles, most of the money came from abroad. The friendly team hopes to stir up the domestic clothing market, make it more technological and convenient for the average buyer.