Gendo, an AI platform which transforms how architects and designers bring ideas and sketches to life, has raised £855,000 in a pre-seed round of funding.
Already being used in beta by a range of global architecture practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF, David Chipperfield Architects, and Benoy, Gendo is transforming how architects and designers visualise projects.
Through a combination of generative AI models and machine learning techniques, the platform can turn designs into visualisations in seconds, as well as add and edit details from scratch based on text prompts.
These visualisations are a critical component of the architecture process, often being used to help win competitive bids and move projects through the concept to construction phases. Currently, rendering beautiful visualisations and the details that populate them can take architects weeks and incur huge costs.
Gendo was founded by architectural designer and visualiser George Proud and software engineer Will Jones. It can take 2D drawings, sketches or text prompts and turn them into intricate, realistic visualisations.
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Each prompt generates a range of options for users to choose from and, unlike mainstream generative image platforms, the visualisations generated on Gendo can be edited. Sections can be masked and tweaked, as well as specific details such as colours, lighting or structural features added or taken away.
The funding was led by Concept Ventures and joined by Ascension Ventures, Carles Reina’s Baobab Ventures and a range of angels from the worlds of AI and architecture, including the former global head of design studios at WeWork.
“Mainstream generative image platforms can be really impressive, but they simply aren’t fit for purpose when it comes to a sector like architecture and design,” said Proud. “In our industry, detail and precision is everything. Gendo has been designed specifically for these professionals; we’ve built an AI platform that speeds up design work and allows creativity to flourish.
“We’re eliminating the burdensome processes currently involved in visualisations and instead making it an efficient, instinctive and empowering experience. Gone is the era of waiting days to receive one small image of a tree to add to your design.
“We’re thrilled with how well the platform has been received amongst leading architecture firms during our beta and we’re looking forward to partnering with industry further to enhance the value of Gendo’s tools.”
Oliver Kicks, partner at Concept Ventures, added: “We strongly believe that the products built by (and for) domain experts in a post-AI era can truly transform workplace productivity and deliver order-of-magnitude improvements to their daily workflows. We can’t wait to see what this great team builds next.”