Our group invests in Brighton AR startup Percept Imagery
Brighton based augmented reality technology startup Percept Imagery has raised £300k in its latest funding round to further enhance their immersive try-on platform, Sprie, which enables personalised shopping experiences that blend the online and real worlds together.
The investment, which has been made by South East Angels and SFC Capital, will help Percept Imagery to grow their team and continue to develop their technology which will enable the many retailers who have been hit hard during the pandemic, to serve their customers better.
Since launching the platform in March 2020, the startup has seen speedy growth with over 40k virtual try-ons being enabled by Sprie every month. Percept Imagery has ambitious plans to establish partnerships with e-commerce marketplaces and independent brands across the Western Europe and the US due to the success they have already seen in the UK
Akshay Saswade, co-founder of Percept Imagery says “With this investment, we will be able to accelerate the next major e-commerce evolution with our cutting-edge augmented reality platform, as well as build our team and expand our customer base."
How Percept Imagery is meeting the retail challenge
Right now, retailers are responding to a significant shift in consumer buying behaviour. From diminishing engagement to demand for ‘zero touch’ purchasing.
Retailer marketing teams are faced with meeting the challenges this raises but must also take advantage of the new opportunities this presents. As an augmented reality technology start-up, Percept Imagery knew they had a safe way for brands to market and offer the same physical experience virtually through augmented reality (AR).
Rohan Satpute, co-founder of Percept Imagery says “Sprie enables brands to better position their products online by providing a virtual try-on experience for their customers without the need to download an app. This instantly overcomes buying resistance, shortens the sales timeline and reduces product returns.”
Why Percept Imagery
Online shopping behaviour is changing. Customers are 65% more likely to purchase from a brand that offers AR try-on and 1.73 billion smartphones are already AR enabled.
Whilst AR try-on has been around for a while, the experience never lived up to the idea with customers saying it’s too clunky, slow, or the requirement to download a separate application to utilise try-on was just too much effort.
The Percept Imagery founding team, with over eight years of experience in immersive AR/VR visualisation software development, have developed a solution that cuts out the unnecessary slow process and allows customers to try things on instantly through their smartphones.
The UK tech scene has recognised the huge potential in the young startup, with Percept Imagery being selected as Tech Nation’s Rising Star and being endorsed and backed by leading organisations like NatWest, DIT, and Digital Catapult.
Kristina, Managing Director of South East Angels says “I have seen the co-founding team at Percept Imagery go from strength to strength since they started out on their journey and we are thrilled to be supporting them on their journey to continue to develop technology that will change the way customers shop online. Our investors were particularly impressed with the tenacity of the team and their technical knowledge, and we are looking forward to seeing them continue to thrive.”
Ed Stevenson, Investment Manager at SFC Capital says “We were delighted to have led Percept Imagery's latest funding round. With the rapid shift towards e-commerce in recent months, there has never been a better time for their seamlessly integrated AR solution to not only improve online shopping experience, but also to boost conversion for retailers and reduce the number of returns. We were really impressed with the team at Percept Imagery and cannot wait to see what the coming months hold for them.”
