After successfully selling his last AI startup to Meta, Awais Shafique is back with a new venture, Beyond Presence, aiming to revolutionize digital avatars. The Munich-based startup has raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed round, with German firm HV Capital leading the investment. Other participants include 10x Founders, Alba VC, and prominent individuals from Meta, DeepMind, and Zalando.
The Vision: Hyper-Realistic, Real-Time Avatars
Beyond Presence is developing hyper-realistic avatars designed for real-time conversational situations, creating digital versions that look and sound identical to their human counterparts. While the product has not been launched yet, it has attracted significant attention with 300 companies on its waitlist, particularly in sectors such as customer service, sales, recruitment, and e-learning. These industries seek to scale user interactions while reducing the need for human staffing.
A Strong Foundation in AIShafique, the co-founder and CEO, is no stranger to computer vision innovation. His previous startup, Presize, which utilized AI to help customers accurately measure clothing sizes using a smartphone camera, was acquired by Meta in 2022. Although Meta did not disclose the acquisition price, estimates place the deal in the lower nine-figure range, according to TechCrunch. Shafique’s success with Presize—launched after a record-breaking appearance on Germany’s version of “Shark Tank” in 2020—has given Beyond Presence a financial edge, allowing it to operate without outside funding until this recent round.
The Funding and Product Rollout
The $3.1 million raised will be allocated to further developing Beyond Presence's foundational models, with plans to launch a public beta by the end of the month. The company’s avatars are intended to stand out by combining cutting-edge computer vision, voice technology powered by Eleven Labs, and generative AI from OpenAI’s GPT to facilitate seamless, real-time interactions. Shafique mentioned that enterprise clients will have the flexibility to integrate their own AI models, ensuring that sensitive data remains proprietary.
Beyond the Competition
Despite a crowded market of avatar-focused startups, Beyond Presence is carving out a niche with its emphasis on real-time, hyper-realistic avatars. Competitors like Synthesia, Ready Player Me, and Veed have taken different approaches—some focusing on non-realistic avatars for privacy concerns or requiring high-end setups to create digital likenesses. Shafique’s goal is to enable users to create lifelike avatars on-the-fly using just a smartphone, positioning the product as a practical tool for businesses looking to enhance customer interaction.
A Different Path from Y Combinator
Interestingly, Beyond Presence was accepted into Y Combinator earlier this year, but Shafique and co-founder Felix Altenberger, the startup’s CTO and a former deep learning specialist at Presize, opted out. While acknowledging the value of YC’s network, they chose to retain more equity and autonomy to pursue their own vision. This decision reflects the team’s commitment to focusing on their core technology and foundational models rather than a rapid commercialization approach.
Shafique and his co-founders at Presize are still working in their respective roles—two remain at Meta, contributing to its generative AI projects—but the success of their past endeavors has laid a strong foundation for Beyond Presence to make a major impact in the AI and computer vision space.
As Beyond Presence prepares to release its beta and attract early customers, the startup’s trajectory offers an intriguing glimpse into the future of hyper-realistic avatars in business interactions.
