AI startup SpAItial has emerged from stealth mode with a $13 million seed round led by Earlybird Venture Capital, joined by Speedinvest and several high-profile angels.
SpAItial is building physics-consistent, spatio-temporally grounded AI that understands the 3D world like humans do.
Unlike today’s models that generate pixel by pixel, SpAItial’s SFM operates directly on 3D structures. This allows it to bridge virtual and physical environments with unprecedented accuracy and realism. From creating high-fidelity game worlds to enabling robots to better navigate dynamic environments,
SpAItial’s technology unlocks a new class of AI-native 3D applications, with far-reaching impact in entertainment, urban planning, and industrial automation.
The funding will be used to scale the development of the company’s first Spatial Foundation Model (SFM). It’s a new paradigm of AI that reasons about space and time natively.
Early demo results show their model can generate photorealistic 3D worlds from a single image, with applications ranging from immersive entertainment to robotics and digital twinning.
SpAItial was founded by a team of industry leaders and deep tech veterans:
- Matthias Niessner – Professor at TU Munich, co-founder of Synthesia, formerly Stanford;
- Luke Rogers – ex-McKinsey, Cazoo;
- Ricardo Martin-Brualla – ex-Google, Project Starline, 3D Shopping; and
- David Novotny – ex-Meta, 3D Asset Gen Lead.
“Current AI models generate images pixel by pixel — great for snapshots, but not for immersive, coherent worlds,” said Matthias Niessner, Co-Founder of SpAItial and Professor at TU Munich.
“At SpAItial, we’re building AI that’s grounded in space and time from the start. Our spatial foundation models are a game changer for any application that depends on 3D understanding.”
Current 3D creation tools are outdated, slow, and inaccessible to non-experts. SpAItial is building the infrastructure to change that: democratizing 3D generation, simplifying design workflows, and unlocking new use cases for AR/VR, eCommerce, and autonomous systems.
“We couldn’t be more excited to back SpAItial’s team of world-class technologists,” said Dr. Andre Retterath, General Partner at Earlybird.
“While text, image, and video have seen massive generative AI progress, 3D remains stuck in the pre-AI era.
SpAItial’s unique depth in both academic research and real-world product development positions them to bring spatial intelligence into reality.”
Expert angels who supported this round include:
- Robin Rombach (Co-Founder & CEO at Black Forest Labs),
- Victor Riparbelli (Co-Founder & CEO at Synthesia),
- Steffen Tjerrild (Co-Founder & COO at Synthesia),
- Christian Stiebner,
- Edward Grefenstette, Maximlian Odendahl (ex CEO Silexica),
- Jon Barron, Rahul Garg, Sergej Epp (CISO at Sysdig and Palo Alto Networks),
- Elias Schneider (CEO Codesphere),
- Paul Whitehead (CEO Zoopla).
With the fresh financing, SpAItial plans to expand the team with talent in AI, graphics, and 3D systems to build foundational technology, and accelerate the development of SpAItial’s first-generation Spatial Foundation Models.
They’ll be moving early prototypes into scalable infrastructure and scaling up models with advanced physics capabilities, leading to more commercial pilots across entertainment, digital twinning, robotics, and beyond.
Lead Image: SpAItial. Photo: uncredited.
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