- Out-of-stealth startup fosters a new AI category of Spatial Foundation Models (SFMs)
- Earlybird led the round with Speedinvest following, alongside prominent angel investors
- Funding accelerates development, moving early prototypes into scalable infrastructure
- Commercial pilots planned to serve entertainment, digital twinning, robotics, and more
May 27 2025- SpAItial, the startup redefining how AI understands and generates 3D environments, has emerged from stealth mode with a $13 million (£9.6 million) seed round led by Earlybird Venture Capital, joined by Speedinvest and several high-profile angels. The funding will be used to scale the development of the company’s first Spatial Foundation Model (SFM). It’s a new paradigm of AI that reasons about space and time natively. The startup company’s world-class technical team plans expansion. Early demo results show their model can generate photorealistic 3D worlds from a single image, with applications ranging from immersive entertainment to robotics and digital twinning.
SpAItial is building physics-consistent, spatio-temporally grounded AI that understands the 3D world like humans do. Unlike today’s models that generate pixel by pixel, SpAItial’s SFM operates directly on 3D structures. This allows it to bridge virtual and physical environments with unprecedented accuracy and realism. From creating high-fidelity game worlds to enabling robots to better navigate dynamic environments, SpAItial’s technology unlocks a new class of AI-native 3D applications, with far-reaching impact in entertainment, urban planning, and industrial automation.
Blending research pedigree with commercial experience, the SpAItial team brings a rare combination of technical excellence and startup grit, uniquely positioned to lead the Spatial AI revolution. SpAItial was founded by a team of industry leaders and deep tech veterans: Matthias Niessner – Professor at TU Munich, co-founder of Synthesia, formerly Stanford; Luke Rogers – ex-McKinsey, Cazoo; Ricardo Martin-Brualla – ex-Google, Project Starline, 3D Shopping; and David Novotny – ex-Meta, 3D Asset Gen Lead.
“Current AI models generate images pixel by pixel — great for snapshots, but not for immersive, coherent worlds. At SpAItial, we’re building AI that’s grounded in space and time from the start. Our spatial foundation models are a game changer for any application that depends on 3D understanding.”
Matthias Niessner, Co-Founder of SpAItial and Professor at TU Munich.
It’s a timely leap in a trillion-dollar market. The need for 3D-native AI is exploding. From the $220B gaming industry to industrial robotics and digital twins, organizations increasingly rely on spatial data to simulate, design, and automate the physical world. Yet current 3D creation tools are outdated, slow, and inaccessible to non-experts. SpAItial is building the infrastructure to change that: democratizing 3D generation, simplifying design workflows, and unlocking new use cases for AR/VR, eCommerce, and autonomous systems.
“We couldn’t be more excited to back SpAItial’s team of world-class technologists. While text, image, and video have seen massive generative AI progress, 3D remains stuck in the pre-AI era. SpAItial’s unique depth in both academic research and real-world product development positions them to bring spatial intelligence into reality.”
Dr. Andre Retterath, General Partner at Earlybird.
Expert angels who supported this round include: Robin Rombach (Co-Founder & CEO at Black Forest Labs), Victor Riparbelli (Co-Founder & CEO at Synthesia), Steffen Tjerrild (Co-Founder & COO at Synthesia), Christian Stiebner, Edward Grefenstette, Maximlian Odendahl (ex CEO Silexica), Jon Barron, Rahul Garg, Sergej Epp (CISO at Sysdig and Palo Alto Networks), Elias Schneider (CEO Codesphere), Paul Whitehead (CEO Zoopla).
With the fresh financing, SpAItial plans to expand the team with talent in AI, graphics, and 3D systems to build foundational technology, and accelerate the development of SpAItial’s first-generation Spatial Foundation Models. They’ll be moving early prototypes into scalable infrastructure and scaling up models with advanced physics capabilities, leading to more commercial pilots across entertainment, digital twinning, robotics, and beyond.
About Spatial:
SpAItial is pioneering spatial foundation models (SFMs), a groundbreaking AI paradigm designed to generate and reason about the appearance and physics of real and imagined environments. SFMs possess an intrinsic understanding of space-time, enabling transformative shifts in applications at the intersection of virtual and physical worlds. Founded by Matthias Niessner, Luke Rogers, Ricardo Martin-Brualla, and David Novotny in 2024, the team is currently expanding to build the next generation of spatial foundation models.
Learn more at: https://spaitial.ai/ and for press, contact: [email protected]
About Earlybird:
Founded in 1997, Earlybird identifies and backs exceptional early-stage companies on a pan-European basis – supporting them through their growth and development phases and providing financial resources, strategic support, plus access to an international network and capital markets. Through two separate strategies, Earlybird focuses on tech-enabled businesses in fintech/ insurtech, enterprise software, and deep tech (energy, food, and space) while Earlybird Health focuses on improving patient outcomes. Earlybird additionally has a Growth Opportunity Fund for follow-on investments, and a pro-bono impact initiative, Vision Lab. With EUR 2.5 billion under management across fund streams and a history of 9 IPOs and 35 trade sales, Earlybird is among Europe’s most established and active venture capital firms.
More information at: www.earlybird.com, LinkedIn, and X.
