Ukrainian tech startup Reface — which created a technology that allows users to “try on” the faces of other people in videos — has attracted $5.5 million to continue its exponential growth, the company announced on Dec. 8.
Several moguls across the gaming, music, film and tech industries have put money into the Ukrainian startup, including Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which previously invested in big names like Airbnb, Stripe, GitHub and Lyft. U.S. investors Scooter Braun and Adam Leber, who have worked with buzzy pop stars like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Britney Spears, also invested.
Although Reface is well-known for its mobile app, which has already been downloaded over 70 million times since its launch in January, it is the Ukrainian company’s face swap technology that investors set their sights on.
According to Ukrainian tech entrepreneur Roman Mogylnyi, one of the co-founders, Reface has the quickest and most accurate tool on the market. Its algorithms analyze data automatically and learn through a process called machine learning. It helps to adjust faces on videos and images to different lights, colors and facial expressions within a few seconds and makes the final picture even more realistic.
Because the technology is so advanced, it is also used in the entertainment, film, gaming and advertising industries, Mogylnyi told the Kyiv Post.
That is just what foreign investors are looking for.
“I believe that Reface has the potential to be the next-generation personalization platform that enables the gamification of movies, sports, music videos and many other fields that people are passionate about,” said Ilkka Paananen, chief executive of the Finnish mobile game developer Supercell, which also invested in Reface.
According to Connie Chan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the firm also wants to use the Ukrainian startup’s “core technology” in the entertainment and marketing industries.
So far, the technology has gone viral worldwide and, for a few weeks, the app even surpassed popular online platforms like TikTok and Instagram in the U.S. App Store.
Celebrities including Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Elon Musk have all used the app and posted funny pictures and videos on their social media.
Reface even worked with Amazon Prime to advertise the sensational second Borat film that mocked President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Working with such powerful technology, Ukrainian techies are aware of the responsibility they have. The same tech used to entertain can deceive by creating deepfakes, fake videos that are hard to distinguish from the real thing. Such technology has been used in celebrity pornographic videos, revenge porn, fake news, hoaxes and financial fraud.
To avoid these issues, Reface wants to spend part of the investment to develop a web tool to detect deepfake videos.
The startup promised to launch this tool earlier in the fall, but it took more time to finish than expected.
The company also wants to hire more tech specialists to expand the potential use of the technology.
In an interview earlier in November, Mogylnyi told the Kyiv Post that the company has shown only 10% of what the technology is capable of, so there is still room to grow.
With so many people stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, craving for new experiences and fun, Reface tech appears to be an accessible way to escape the dull reality, both the investors and company’s founders think.
