Botika is a company that harnesses the power of Generative AI to help clothing fashion brands create stunning product photos. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Botika co-founder and CEO Eran Dagan to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Eran Dagan’s Background
What is Eran Dagan’s background? Dagan said:
“I’ve been working in the computer vision and AI space for over a decade. Before Botika, I was heavily involved in the development of visual technologies, and I’ve always been passionate about finding innovative ways to apply AI. My co-founder Yarin and I have a shared background in technology, and that’s what laid the foundation for Botika. We’ve spent years building solutions that could eventually solve real-world problems, and with Botika, we’ve found our sweet spot in the fashion industry.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Dagan shared:
“We gambled on generative AI before it was cool – back in 2018. My co-founder and I started researching our image-to-video model and realized how impactful content is for fashion. That’s when we decided to focus on this space, building Botika to help fashion brands create better visuals faster and more affordably. That shift allowed us to leverage our technology to solve real needs in the fashion space, and it has worked out incredibly well. As for my role, I handle the overall vision and direction of the company, and I’m very involved in key product decisions and growth strategy.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Dagan reflected:
“One of my favorite memories is when my partner and I were setting up my workstation in his bedroom while putting together an IKEA table. I love those early, scrappy days when we were building something real from the ground up. It’s also incredibly rewarding to see the path Boitka is on right now and what we still have to achieve.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dagan explained:
“At our core, Botika is a generative AI platform designed to help fashion brands create stunning, high-quality images without the need for expensive photoshoots or a massive team. We offer access to a diverse set of AI-generated models, backgrounds, and customization tools that allow users to create realistic, on-brand photos in minutes. Our platform helps brands save time, money, and resources while scaling their visual content production.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Dagan and the team face in building the company? Dagan acknowledged:
“The biggest challenge has been educating the market on the benefits of generative AI in fashion. There’s still some skepticism, especially from larger brands that are used to traditional photography. To overcome this, we’ve worked hard on refining our technology to make it as realistic as possible and to continuously prove that it’s not only cost-effective but also scalable and high-quality. As we’ve added more success stories and increased our feature set, we’ve seen more adoption and excitement from users.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dagan noted:
“Since launching, Botika has grown into a much more refined and powerful platform. We’ve developed our proprietary AI models, increased our rendering capabilities, and added more advanced features for customization. The models and backgrounds we offer have evolved significantly in terms of diversity, realism, and flexibility, and we’re constantly innovating to stay ahead in the space.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dagan cited:
“A few key milestones include our pivot to the fashion industry, the launch of our Shopify native AI model native app, the expansion of our paid user base and reaching 1,000 paying customers at the beginning of Q4 last year (and we’re already close to doubling that). Our iOS mobile app launch also, which will bring us even closer to the e-commerce world. We’re constantly hitting new benchmarks, and the interest we’ve garnered from fashion brands and investors has been incredibly rewarding.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Dagan about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Jordache, a leading fashion brand, faced high costs and delays with traditional photoshoots. After adopting Botika, they drastically reduced production expenses by 70-90%, sped up photo creation, and maintained high-quality visuals. Using Botika’s AI models and backgrounds, they streamlined operations and stayed on brand with minimal effort.”
Funding
When asking Dagan about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“We’ve raised $8 million in seed funding, which has helped us significantly scale our team and product. We’re in incredible growth mode, multiplying our revenue 9X and our customer base 11X in the past year. We plan to continue growing aggressively since we keep seeing consistent traction and positive feedback from our customers, which makes us optimistic about our trajectory.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dagan assessed:
“The market is massive. There are over 1.2 million fashion brands globally, plus tens of millions of sellers on platforms like Etsy, Poshmark, and Vinted. There’s a huge opportunity to help fashion brands create better visuals and optimize their marketing efforts.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dagan affirmed:
“We’re unique and different from our competitors primarily because we develop and train our own foundation models, specifically tailored for the fashion industry, starting with apparel. Unlike many other AI platforms that rely on generic, off-the-shelf models, our technology is designed from the ground up to understand the unique nuances of fashion imagery— the draping of fabric, the fit of garments, the complexities of model poses and proportions to name a few.”
“This focus on fashion-specific AI allows us to create hyper-realistic and high-quality fashion photos at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional photoshoots. Our in-house development ensures that we maintain full control over the quality of our models and backgrounds, continuously refining them to stay ahead of industry trends and meet our customers’ evolving needs.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Dagan concluded:
“Looking ahead, we’re focused on enhancing our AI capabilities, including training our own video foundation model. We’re developing cutting-edge technologies that will further simplify the creative process for fashion brands, enabling them to scale and engage their audiences in new ways. We’re excited to keep pushing the envelope in fashion imaging and ensure that our users always have access to the best tools in the industry.”
