Onton Secures $7.5M to Expand AI Shopping Platform Beyond Furniture
▼ Summary
– Major tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and Amazon are investing in AI assistants to help users research and purchase products.
– Onton, an AI-powered furniture shopping platform, has grown from 50,000 to over 2 million monthly active users and raised $7.5 million in new funding.
– The company uses neuro-symbolic architecture to reduce AI hallucinations and improve search results by learning real-world information not always in product descriptions.
– Onton offers features like image uploads and an infinite canvas for generating room setups, helping users make purchase decisions faster and converting customers 3-5x more than traditional e-commerce sites.
– With the new funding, Onton plans to expand into apparel and consumer electronics, grow its team, and compete with startups like Daydream and Style.ai.
The world of online shopping is rapidly evolving, and artificial intelligence is now at the forefront of product discovery. While tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Amazon are pouring resources into AI shopping assistants, a new wave of specialized startups is emerging to challenge the status quo. One such company, Onton, has just secured a significant $7.5 million investment to broaden its AI-powered platform beyond its initial focus on furniture.
This new funding round was spearheaded by Footwork and saw participation from a consortium of investors including Liquid 2, Parable Ventures, and 43. The capital injection boosts the startup’s total funding to roughly $10 million, providing the financial muscle for a strategic expansion. The company intends to use these resources to move into new retail categories, starting with apparel and eventually branching out into consumer electronics.
Onton, which recently changed its name from Deft to resolve brand confusion and secure a better domain, has experienced explosive growth. Its monthly active user count has skyrocketed from 50,000 to over 2 million, facilitating millions of searches and image generations. This surge in adoption highlights a growing consumer appetite for intelligent shopping tools.
According to co-founder Zach Hudson, while large language models are adept at interpreting user intent, they have yet to fully solve many core e-commerce challenges. He points out that the average time a consumer spends making a purchase decision has actually increased, indicating a need for more effective solutions.
To address this, Onton relies on a neuro-symbolic architecture for its core technology. Hudson explains that this sophisticated approach allows the platform to sidestep the common “hallucination” issues plaguing standard LLMs, delivering more logical and reliable search results. The system possesses the unique ability to learn real-world information that isn’t explicitly stated in product descriptions.
“For instance, if you’re searching for pet-friendly furniture, our tools understand that an item containing polyester will likely be more resistant to stains and scratches,” Hudson said. “Our AI learns these nuanced correlations through every search, becoming progressively smarter at a much faster rate.”
The platform is designed to overcome the frustration of inconsistent product naming across different retail sites. Its AI model intelligently accounts for these variations, ensuring users find what they’re looking for regardless of terminology.
Onton has enriched its platform with diverse input methods to assist with both immediate and long-term planning. Users can now upload a photograph or provide a descriptive prompt outlining their vision for a room. The AI then generates ideas and finds furniture that matches the desired aesthetic and functional requirements.
A standout feature is the infinite canvas with integrated image generation. This allows users to combine existing photos with products they discover on the platform, creating mood boards and conceptual layouts. You can even upload a picture of your own room and instruct the tool to furnish it virtually.
The company believes that moving beyond a simple chat interface provides consumers with more avenues to discover products, especially when they struggle to articulate exactly what they want. This multifaceted approach has reportedly led to conversion rates that are three to five times higher than those of traditional e-commerce sites, a success Hudson attributes to the trust users place in the platform’s underlying data.
Hudson noted that the technological and interface advancements they’ve made will streamline the launch into the apparel category. The company is actively building its catalog for this new vertical and plans to debut it soon. In the competitive fashion discovery space, Onton will go up against established players like Daydream, Aesthetic, and Style.ai.
To support this ambitious growth, Onton is also expanding its team. The startup has grown from three full-time employees in 2023 to ten today, with plans to reach fifteen by hiring additional engineers and researchers.
(Source: TechCrunch)
