Wand app has secured $4.2 million in funding to expand its AI-powered tool for artists
An innovative tool called Wand.app has recently raised $4.2 million in seed funding, which was led by O’Shaughnessy Ventures. This tool is designed to provide artists with the ability to customize and visualize their ideas manually, rather than relying on AI-powered creative tools that offer limited control. The CEO and founder of Wand, Grant Davis, stated that the tool is not intended to replace human creativity and imagination with AI. Instead, it aims to bridge the gap between AI and personalization with a combination of visual tools. The tool is currently being tested with a small group of beta testers and is expected to be launched publicly in the coming months.
Wand allows artists to teach the AI their own style, resulting in consistent aesthetic outcomes. The editing process is carried out on a freeform art board, where individuals or groups can work together to iterate on their work. The most ideal users of Wand are artists and illustrators, such as game studios, architects, branding firms, and concept artists.
Wand differentiates itself from other AI-powered creative tools by running on mobile, tablet, and soon, on desktop. This allows the editing process to feel more fluid and allows the company to support more graphical tooling. The company plans to use the new funding to build out collaborative team features, along with new creative tooling that will extend to desktop. Wand is also researching ways to improve foundation model architectures and fine-tuning techniques.
Wand is interested in exploring methods for artists to share or sell models they have fine-tuned on their work. However, Wand is not rushing into building such a feature just yet, because it wants to ensure that the marketplace is able to prevent malicious actors who would either try to steal the work of others or share harmful content. Wand is also interested in exploring applications to 3D modeling, as the company believes that there will come a point in which one can design something in 2D and have an AI automatically turn it into a 3D model. Davis believes Wand would be the perfect medium for this because its existing toolset naturally could extend to 3D.
In conclusion, Wand.app is a tool that strives to provide artists with the ability to manually customize and visualize their ideas, rather than relying on AI-powered creative tools. The company has received seed funding, which will be used to build out collaborative team features, new creative tooling, and to research ways to improve foundation model architectures and fine-tuning techniques. Wand is also interested in exploring methods for artists to share or sell their fine-tuned models and exploring applications to 3D modeling.