Generative AI startup Hexo helps build custom image generation engines

Artificial Intelligence-driven image generation space is becoming increasingly popular across the world. 

You may have already seen people on social media sharing captivating images produced by these AI image generators. One such great example is Dall-E by OpenAI. The neural network is capable of creating images from text captions. Other similar AI-driven image-generating platforms are Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. Recently, Lensa AI by Prisma became viral on the web.

While these platforms have impressed many, there are still a few limitations: there aren’t too many customization options, for brands in particular. 

Generative AI startup Hexo is trying to bridge this gap with its open-source image generation API, which allows enterprises to build personalized image generation engines based on their own design language, products, characters, IP, and more. Hexo’s platform can be used for other purposes as well: filmmakers can create customized film storyboarding, animation, and VFX. 

“Say you are a brand, let’s say, Nike. You want to create imagery around your own brand and not the generic ones. So, what we’re doing is bringing that customization… you can create a custom image generation model through which you can create images within a certain boundary. Create images that are in line with your brands’ design guidelines, characters, products, etc,” Hexo co-founder and CEO Kunal Bhatia explained while talking to Entrackr.

Hexo is building infrastructure to let you launch your personalized image generation engine similar to Lensa AI. Different enterprises have different use cases, and Hexo aims to build the infrastructure to power those use cases, he added. 

Founded in 2022 by Bhatia and Vignesh Bhaskaran, Hexo recently raised $270,000 in pre-seed funding from Antler India at a valuation of $3 million. Before Hexo, Bhatia had founded SuperLearn, an online after-school learning platform for kids between the ages of 3 and 13. Bhaskaran, also the CTO at Hexo, previously served as Resident Entrepreneur at Antler.

Hexo is based out of Bengaluru, but also has an office in San Francisco in the US. Bhatia said that the company will be mostly focusing on the US market in the coming. He further disclosed that Hexo is working with five to ten companies at the moment and is also focusing on building a community of developers. 

Generative AI startups are gaining wide traction as more and new use cases are propping up. The industry is projected to be worth $110 billion by 2030 with growth at a CAGR of 34.3% from 2022. Some of the top generative AI startups that have been active in this space are Paige AI, Rephrase AI, and Stability AI among others.