Liquid Interactive Raises $700K for Interactive AI Visuals

Former Maple Scan co-founders Sasha Ivanov and Ben Pearman are stepping into a new venture, Liquid Interactive, aiming to revolutionize how users engage with visual content through artificial intelligence. The startup has successfully closed a $700,000 CAD seed round, led by Toronto-based venture studio AXL. This funding will fuel the development of patented technology designed to imbue static images and digital demonstrations with dynamic interactivity, moving beyond the conventional text-based AI interfaces.

Liquid Interactive's core mission is to bridge the gap between the current, often passive, consumption of AI-generated content and a more engaging, exploratory experience. The founders believe that the prevailing method of interacting with AI—typing prompts into a text box—is limiting and fails to capture the richness of visual communication. "When we compare [text chatting] to other experiences online and in our lives, like video-based platforms on social media, it’s a lot less engaging and interesting," stated Ivanov, highlighting the potential for lost nuance in purely text-driven AI interactions.

The company is launching its first consumer-facing application, Liquid Photos, which leverages generative AI to transform users' existing photo libraries. This innovative tool can connect images taken in proximity, enabling users to explore them in a three-dimensional space, even from 2D source material. A particularly striking feature allows for the deconstruction of objects within an image, enabling users to dissect and navigate their individual components. The beta version is currently accessible to both Apple and Android users, with a full App Store launch anticipated soon.

This strategic pivot into interactive AI visuals arrives at a time when AI-generated imagery is rapidly proliferating across various sectors, from marketing to creative industries. While concerns about job displacement in creative fields persist, Ivanov emphasizes that Liquid Interactive's technology is not intended to replace human creativity but to augment it. "Our belief is that as content gets easier to generate, human judgment and direction become more valuable, not less," he explained. The company aims to empower individuals in entry-level creative roles, providing them with tools to produce sophisticated visual art previously beyond their reach.

Liquid Interactive's ambition extends beyond consumer applications. The startup is actively engaging with brands to integrate its technology into e-commerce platforms, enhancing online storefronts and product showcases with interactive 3D models and embedded product information. By building upon existing visual assets created by design teams, Liquid Interactive seeks to offer brands a novel way to engage customers and provide deeper product insights. The venture studio AXL, co-founded by University of Toronto professors, is incubating Liquid Interactive as part of its ambitious goal to foster 50 AI startups in Canada over the next five years.

The founders' prior success with Maple Scan, an app that gained significant traction during a period of heightened consumer interest in supporting local businesses, provides a strong foundation for this new endeavor. While Maple Scan remains operational, the focus has decisively shifted to scaling the interactive AI vision. The current funding round, spearheaded by AXL, underscores the market's growing appetite for AI applications that offer more intuitive and visually rich user experiences, signaling a potential shift in how digital content is created and consumed.