Bezi raises $13M to enable user-generated and collaborative 3D design

Bezi, a collaborative 3D design tool, has raised $13 million to democratize the creation of 3D experiences and enable more user-generated content.

Benchmark led the round. The pivotal funding round also saw Benchmark partner Chetan Puttagunta stepping in to join Bezi’s Board.

Other investors include Uncork Capital and Designer Fund, alongside a league of notable founders and design leaders, including Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Akshay Kothari (Notion), Ryan Hoover (Product Hunt), Siqi Chen (Runway, Sandbox VR), Suhail Doshi (Mixpanel, Playground), Soleio (Figma, Dropbox), Dantley Davis (Nike, Twitter), Lenny Rachitsky, among many others.

The significant capital influx comes at a juncture where Bezi aims to redefine the landscape of 3D design tools, making them more accessible and collaborative than the existing technical engines like Unity or Unreal.

Recognizing the evolving nature of the digital world and the growth of 3D experiences across various sectors, Bezi foresees this decade to be characterized by remarkable growth in immersive, interactive 3D experiences.

Bezi’s ambition aligns with the ongoing shift towards more engaging and immersive digital experiences. The recent introduction of Apple’s Vision Pro represents a leap in the direction of spatial computing, hinting at a paradigm shift reminiscent of previous advancements in computing history.

The Bezi team, led by Julian Park, Cecilia Uhr, Denys Bastov, and their collective experience from Oculus in developing 3D software for the Quest headsets, highlights the need for more accessible, user-friendly 3D design tools. The prevailing tools like Bezi offer a whiteboarding and prototyping platform that has gained the attention of thousands of designers, who leverage the tool to create UI-driven apps or full game levels.

Bezi’s roadmap envisions a commitment to simplifying the creation and orchestration of 3D assets, pushing the boundaries of no-code prototyping features, and amplifying performance and security aspects. The platform anticipates additional integrations to amplify productivity, coupled with broader hardware destinations that can support 3D experiences, including the Apple Vision Pro.

“At Bezi, we believe that this coming decade will be marked in the history books as a time of incredible growth in the adoption of immersive, interactive 3D experiences,” said Park, in a statement. “We also believe that the process of creating such experiences should be much more accessible and collaborative
than today’s technical on-prem engines like Unity or Unreal. This is an urgent need that Cecilia, Denys, and I experienced firsthand at Oculus while building 3D software for the Quest headsets and have heard the same from many other designers across 3D industries.”

“Today we see thousands of designers using Bezi to whiteboard, design, and prototype 3D experiences. Check out this video from our recent design challenge! These experiences are often UI-driven apps or full game levels that are shared not only cross-platform but also cross-device (desktop, mobile, headset) — all thanks to the web. Frankly, many of these experiences may not have come to life if the only available creative tools were technical game engines,” said Park. “We are deeply honored to support the creative journeys of designers working on 3D projects, as well as those dipping their toes into 3D from 2D apps. Looking forward, here are some exciting updates to expect from Bezi.”

The company wants to make creation even easier to create and orchestrate 3D assets, as well as more advanced prototyping features to push the limits of no-code. Performance and security continue to be key focus areas.

The company has already done integrations with Figma and Unity. There’s more coming soon to boost productivity and enable teams to store the project’s source of truth in Bezi.

The company is expanding on hardware destinations that can run 3D experiences made with Bezi, including the Apple Vision Pro. Each destination experience will play to the unique advantages of the form factor.

You can try Bezi’s free beta today at bezi.com and join its Discord to chat with our growing community of
Bezties. The company is hiring. Bezi has nine people now, and its focus is on opening up 3D design to everyone, regardless of education or background.

Designers own the content they create in Bezi, so it wouldn’t run into copyright issues, Park said in an email to GamesBeat.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz