The fashion industry is evolving rapidly each year, with retailers consistently introducing fresh styles each season. Fast-fashion brands like Shein, H&M, and Zara continually update their collections to satisfy the increasing demand for new fashions. To keep up with this swift pace, brands and manufacturers are increasingly leveraging technology to streamline their design processes.
Raspberry AI, a startup launched two years ago, provides a technological solution that accelerates product development by enabling designers to visualise and refine their concepts almost instantaneously through its text-to-image platform.
The founder of Raspberry, Cheryl Liu, who has experience as a private equity analyst at KKR focusing on retail, and later roles at Amazon and DoorDash, identified an opportunity to integrate generative AI into fashion design shortly after image modelling technologies like Open AI’s DALL-E and Stability AI’s stable diffusion were released in late 2022.
“For the first time in history, you could swiftly generate hundreds of designs in a manner that was previously impossible,” Liu shared with StartupSuperb. She noted that prior to the advent of generative AI, designers often needed to request physical samples to visualise their ideas, which was a process that typically took weeks.
Alternatively, designers relied on traditional computer-aided design tools such as Browzwear and Adobe Photoshop.
With Raspberry, designers can transform their sketches into photo-realistic images that closely resemble how the products would appear on the brand’s website. These images assist brands in deciding whether to proceed with manufacturing the product, as stated by Liu.
“You can view the same foundational piece across various materials and prints,” she explained. “No brand is going to order 50 different sample iterations for a single product, but now they can visualise 50 different versions of a single design.”
The platform has gained significant traction among brands. Currently, Raspberry has 70 clients, including notable names such as athletic brand Under Armour, Groupo Teddy, an Italian manufacturer with 8,840 stores across 39 countries, and luxury fashion label MCM Worldwide.
This rapid expansion has enabled Raspberry to secure a $24 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from existing investors Greycroft, Correlation Ventures, and MVP Ventures. This funding follows the startup’s $4.5 million round approximately 10 months earlier.
Bryan Kim, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, noted their interest in investing in an AI company capable of advancing the fashion production process. “We had discussions with several companies and were particularly impressed by Cheryl as a founder and her approach to building a successful venture.”
The significance of Raspberry’s client base, which includes several esteemed and large companies, further enhanced its attractiveness, Kim mentioned.
While Liu acknowledged that Raspberry faces competition from other AI image generation tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Adobe Firefly, a critical advantage for professional designers choosing her platform is its proficiency in comprehending and interpreting industry-specific terminology accurately.
For instance, Liu provided an example using the term “fuzzy sweater,” noting that “there’s extensive design-specific jargon relevant to that sweater that Midjourney may not recognise.”
Another unique feature that Raspberry offers is the capability to generate images directly from sketches.
The recent funding will be utilised to recruit engineering, sales, and marketing talent, as well as to broaden their offerings into home, furniture, and cosmetics product design.