Artisse builds a mobile app that generates hyper‑realistic user photos by training a proprietary AI model on users' uploaded selfies and prompts. The company combines its own model with elements from open‑source tools and was trained on public‑domain photography; training each user takes about 30–40 minutes while image generation takes minutes. Its app has been downloaded over 200,000 times, users have created over 5 million photos, and its images reached an estimated 43 million people across social media. Originally bootstrapped and founded by William Wu (formerly at McKinsey & Co. and Oaktree Capital), Artisse has a 22‑person team and positions its output to potentially replace professional photography for social and commercial uses. Monetization moved from a pay‑per‑photo model (~$0.20/photo after 25 free images) to subscription tiers ($7, $15, $40/month), converting roughly 4,000 of 200k downloads to subscribers and tripling revenue to $1M ARR in December 2023, with the company on track to $2.5M ARR as of this month. The startup is exploring extensions including virtual fitting rooms for e‑commerce, group‑photo features, shopping from AI photos, and turning AI images into physical prints.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jan 2024