Replacing fashion photoshoots with AI

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Roman Koropets spent a decade shooting fashion photography while simultaneously building software apps. In 2024, he combined these skills to build a consumer app for AI-generated photoshoots.

Users quickly generated over three million images using the tool. The team realized the technology was producing commercial-grade output and pivoted Swapify to enterprise customers.

😟 Problem

Product visuals influence roughly 80% of online ecommerce conversion. Traditional photoshoots cost between US$60 to US$300 per stock keeping unit and take weeks to coordinate. Fast-fashion brands and resellers constantly need fresh creatives for hundreds of new products.

These high-volume catalogs simply cannot shoot fast or cheaply enough to keep pace with demand. As a result, brands face delays in launching products and testing new campaigns.

💡 Solution

Swapify replaces physical photoshoots with an AI-powered image generation pipeline that transforms a single product photo into a library of ecommerce assets. The platform offers several capabilities:

• A visual-recognition model captures exact fabric textures, patterns, and lighting.
• Pose estimation mapping and depth maps place the exact product on virtual models or in lifestyle scenes.
• The software upscales images up to 48 megapixels while adding photoreal refinements like film grain.
• A campaign-ready library generates in minutes at roughly 5% of traditional shoot costs.

Image credit: Swapify

📊 Market size

The total addressable market for ecommerce visual content spend is projected to reach US$150 billion by 2030. Within this space, the serviceable addressable market for AI-generated visuals sits at an estimated US$35 billion.

Swapify targets an initial US$700 million market focusing on digital-first fashion brands and Southeast Asian manufacturers. Bottom-up estimates suggest a US$29 billion global market specifically for ecommerce images.

🤝 Team

• Roman Koropets. Co-founder and CEO. He brings more than 10 years of fashion photography experience and has launched more than 30 software applications.
• Stan Novi. Co-founder and CPO. He brings product and go-to-market experience as a six-time founder with two successful exits.

🚀 Traction

• The startup has reached six-digit annual recurring revenue while growing 3.3x year-over-year.
• The initial consumer application generated over three million images.
• The company is running over 20 enterprise pilots across Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia.
• The team signed a letter of intent to onboard 50 brands through an ecommerce partner.

🏆 Competition

💰 Financials

🚩 Risks