WATCH: How this AI startup is aiming for Bigthinx despite hiring hardships and competitors like Amazon

At 32, Shivang Desai is already a serial entrepreneur, having started up in various spaces like drones, marketing, and gaming, before launching Bigthinx with his college batchmate Chandralika Hazarika in 2015. Architects by education, the duo is now taking on startups like StyleDotMe to global giants like Alibaba with their innovative tech startup.

This Bengaluru-based startup’s flagship product - the Lyflike app- is already making waves. In fact, Bigthinx is being honoured by InterCon as one of the 50 top tech companies this year.

Watch Bigthinx Co-founder Shivang Desai in conversation with YourStory here:

The Lyflike app creates realistic, walkabout 3D avatars that look, measure, and move like you. All you need to do is upload three photos. Lyflike uses artificial intelligence (AI) to build these avatars that  can instantly ‘try on’ any clothing, from any picture. It can also show you where you can buy the product or find something similar online.

Bigthinx is now set to launch their new product Lyfsize, an advanced 3D body scanning app. Their AI app can compute 30 different body measurements accurately from just two photos. These measurements can be used for fashion, bespoke clothing, fitness, and health. The team plans to raise external funding after this launch.

Revenue model

The Lyflike app enables a user to experience different environments in virtual reality; so you can see the clothing and how it would look in in any environment. But this entire experience is free of cost to the end consumer.

In B2B2C, the app pre-digitises products for retailers and includes them in the app. It also leads you to the retailer's website or app where you can check out. Bigthinx takes 10 percent commission by tracking how many users are leaving their app and checking out on a retailer's website.

In the B2B model, it's a software as a service (SaaS) programme. Lyflike has partnered with ecommerce platforms like The Souled Store and Pyscho Store, and is also on-boarding some brands for accessories and shoes from India and the US.

Next steps

Bigthinx is now looking for a pre-Series A round of funding to help develop the product further. Shivang believes that Series A could push them into the US, and several other first world markets, where there are strong data networks, good internet speeds, and people have the propensity to shop online. Shivang says they may enter The Netherlands first, as the market is smaller but consumer behaviour is similar to that of the US.

“[The Netherlands] will be a great test market for us before we actually expand to the US, which is the biggest market when it comes to ticket and order size. We want to go there with a fantastic product that that can do everything that people wanted.”

He adds that a lot of companies are doing this in the US, but right now they are either doing avatars, or clothing-draping fit. Very few companies are attempting to do both. On the other hand, 3D modellers are bridging the gap in cataloguing for ecommerce players. But Shivang says BigThinx has an edge here too.

“Modellers are expensive and can produce only one garment every couple of hours. But for an ecommerce player like Myntra, which has lakhs of products, even an army of 3D modellers can do only a tiny fraction by the time the entire season is gone and styles have changed. Using AI, we can digitise 50-80 percent of catalogues in a matter of hours or days, rather than the months or years, it would take otherwise.”

With AI ruling the world and startups making the best of it, the time has never been better for a player like Bigthinx to make it big!

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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