Unless you're an architect or interior designer, when you go to check out an apartment, it's not always easy to see its potential when all you are looking at is white walls and a few windows. Fortunately, there is an Israeli startup that wants to solve this predicament by letting real estate brokers and personnel produce furnished apartments without putting a single sofa or table in them.
Instantly furnished properties
The Israeli startup Apply Design, which was founded by graduates of the IDF’s Unit 9900, has developed a platform that enables the creation of real estate ads by using 3D simulation of apartments. The platform allows users to furnish all rooms of a house in order to display the apartment in the ad, either manually or by choosing furniture bundles that the company has created in advance to furnish rooms in certain categories. Apply's system can digitally furnish both 360-degree photos of rooms and 2D photos of rooms taken in advance.
The Israeli startup has created a Drag and Drop interface where you can upload the apartment's files, furnish them to your taste, and get high-resolution photos that look as if the apartment really includes all the furniture. In a conversation with Geektime, Asaf Amit, CEO and co-founder of Apply Design, said that the product they developed makes it possible to create simulations for any image of existing property taken from any camera, unlike other products that require presence at the property, administrative programs, or work only with images from a specific device.
"When a young married couple with a baby visits a website we created for a property, instead of seeing a property with less-than-exciting photos with old furniture, the family will see realistic virtual interior designs that resonate with their personal needs that were created automatically for them be it to include a bedroom, a baby's room or a home office. They can even play with these designs and see how the house may fit their needs and taste," explained Amit when attesting to the appeal of their product.
He founded Apply together with Yaniv Knoll (CTO). They met during their military service in Unit 9900 of the Intelligence Corps, which specializes in visual and 3D intelligence for special operations. The company's product was released to the market about a year ago and since then, over 100,000 images of properties have been created using it. As of today, Apply Design has about 750 paying customers, including real estate agencies from 25 different countries. Since its establishment, the startup has also managed to participate in and successfully complete Y Combinator - the most prestigious accelerator in the world.
Today (Monday) the Israeli startup came out of stealth with seed funding of around $3.3 million. The round was led by Urban Innovation, Cathexis Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Y Combinator. Israeli funds Fusion and Secret Chord and other private investors from the real estate sector also participated in the round.
