Founders Fund leads Series Seed for further computer vision technology and product development (San Francisco, January 2020) – Forma has raised $7M in a Series Seed financing from Founders Fund, GSR, founders / executives from YouTube, imgur, Sandbox VR, Polyvore, Roblox, and others to build photorealistic digital identities unconstrained by the physical world. The funds will be used to refine computer vision technology and product development.
Forma’s current products on iOS and Shopify empower users to visualize themselves in any outfit, which previously required physically putting on clothes or merely using imagination. This is a new source of style inspiration for personal exploration, style discussions with friends, or shopping in a world of overwhelming choice; already, Forma has partnered with hundreds of retailers who have increased their shoppers’ confidence and purchase conversion rates by offering digital tryons. Forma believes visualization is a critical component in exploring personal style, and shoppers will soon demand to see themselves in an item before buying online, just like they do offline. In the future, Forma plans to extend their technology to power photorealistic avatars in video games, movies, VR, videoconferences, or anywhere a visual representation is useful in the digital world. Their proprietary computer vision and graphics technology produces pixel-level photorealism in real-time with regular photos, i.e. no need for special hardware (e.g. 3D cameras), green screens, Photoshopping, or photo stitching. While many have tried this idea over the years, this had been impossible to scale until recent breakthroughs in AI technology (specifically deep learning) and GPU hardware. Co-founder and CEO Ben Chiang says: “We’re fortunate to partner with long-term investors who believe in building deep technology applied to universal desires. In our case that desire is the exploration of visual identity, which is increasingly shifting to the digital world. While our technology and products are still early, we’ve already seen a strong and broad response from the market, and this funding enables us to continue innovating and refining the experience. We believe that it’s a matter of when, not if everybody will have a digital avatar just like they have Facebook, hopefully powered by Forma!” “Forma is capitalizing on recent breakthroughs in computer vision to enable anyone to create a photorealistic avatar from a single photo. There is huge demand for this technology in the retail world and beyond,” said Keith Rabois, Partner at Founders Fund. About Forma Forma was founded in San Francisco in October 2017 by co-founders from Uber, Intel, and Stanford, and has raised a total of $12M in funding. They have a small and motivated team from a wide variety of backgrounds and a shared passion for creative problem solving. About Founders Fund Founders Fund invests in the world’s most important and valuable companies across all sectors and stages. The firm has been an early backer of some of the most impactful companies of the past decade, including SpaceX, Palantir, Airbnb, Stripe and Facebook. Founders Fund pursues a founder-friendly investment strategy, providing maximum support with minimum interference. For more information, visit www.foundersfund.com. For more information: Benjamin Chiang Co-founder + CEO ben@formatech.com
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 As we enter the 2020s, what is your style right now? Can you still wear those skinny jeans? What’s the difference between street style and just being lazy? Does athleisure count as fashion? We were curious what Forma users today liked the most from the 2010s. Perhaps expectedly, some styles really dropped in popularity quickly, while others show more lasting power. That got us thinking: Which styles from different decades stood stood the test of time and are still relevant as we enter 2020? Below are Forma users’ favorites, grouped by decade. Are they what you expect?  Note: Click to try any of the below outfits on yourself! 2010s This decade’s trends should be familiar to most of you, we’ll have to check back later to see which stood the test of time! Skinny ties on a slim-fitted light grey gridded suit (thanks Justin Timberlake!):  Women have found ways to make ripped jeans classy!  The hoodie inside jacket with jumper looks good on Tom Holland aka the internet’s boyfriend:  Overalls made a comeback in cutoff form:  And everybody’s favorite superhero is…Deadpool??  Bombastic outfits and futurist dresses like this Met Gala dress show how close we are to becoming the Capitol in The Hunger Games!  2000s Seems like our impression of the 2000s was experimentation with colors and patterns from the 80s...mixed with denim! This denim jacket mixes pretty well with plaid leggings:  Followed by....a mustard yellow denim jacket with houndstooth shorts. Seeing a pattern here? ;)  1990s Well, our memory of the 90s isn’t great, so it’s helpful if the outfit dates itself:  Wait, so festival wear is just 90s fashion??  Take out the iPhone and iPad and this dude coulda walked out of the 90s:  1980s Our view of the 80s seems more accurate than the 90s somehow! This A-line leather dress and flowy blouse somehow pull off retro and stylish at the same time  David Bowie and the rest of the 80s seemed to have more patience putting together outfits  What’s more 80s than MTV and Madonna?  Research shows you have 73.8% more fun when wearing neon  |