Munich-based startup Beyond Presence has raised $3.1 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, led by HV Capital, with participation from 10x Founders, Alba VC, and notable individuals from Meta, DeepMind, and Zalando.
Founded by Awais Shafique (CEO) and Felix Altenberger (CTO), Beyond Presence is focused on creating hyper-realistic avatars that can mirror human likeness and function in real-time, unscripted conversational settings. Leveraging advances in AI and computer vision, their technology enables avatars to look and sound exactly like their human counterparts, pushing the boundaries of digital interactions.
The funding will help Beyond Presence continue developing its core AI models and release its public beta, scheduled by the end of the month. The startup’s avatars combine video and voice technologies from Eleven Labs and generative AI content powered by OpenAI’s GPT. This flexible system allows business customers to integrate any large language models (LLM) or voice agents of their choice.
Beyond Presence aims to address use cases in customer service, recruitment, sales, and e-learning, with over 300 companies already on the waitlist for its product. The company plans to focus on industries looking to scale user interactions without hiring additional personnel.
Shafique, who previously co-founded Presize, a computer vision startup acquired by Meta, explained that his team is working on solving a complex computer vision problem that will transform digital interactions using everyday devices like smartphones.
Opting for full autonomy, Beyond Presence declined to join Y Combinator, choosing instead to focus on its horizontal approach to building core technology and foundational models. The company’s ultimate goal is to make real-time, hyper-realistic avatars accessible to various industries, redefining how businesses interact with customers.
