Wand. app, a creative tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has successfully raised $4. 2 million in seed funding, with O'Shaughnessy Ventures leading the investment. Unlike other AI-powered creative tools that limit an artist's control over generated content, Wand aims to bridge this gap by combining visual tools with personalization. Founded in December 2021, Wand was conceptualized by Grant Davis, the CEO and founder. Davis emphasized that the intent of Wand. app is not to replace human creativity and imagination with AI, but rather to empower artists to bring their specific visions to life without compromise. To achieve this, Wand provides an illustration tool that turns artists' sketches, whether new or edited versions of existing images, into fleshed out suggestions. This allows artists to maintain consistency with their desired aesthetic by teaching the personal AI their own style. The editing process takes place on a freeform art board and can be done individually or collaboratively. While currently being tested by a small group of beta users, Wand has plans to launch publicly in the near future. Davis stated that Wand is primarily tailored towards artists and illustrators, but its user base is expected to include professionals and hobbyists alike since it is designed to be user-friendly. To cover GPU costs, Wand currently operates on an in-app credit system, but the company is considering subscription models in the long term. In terms of pricing, Davis mentioned that it will be similar to other AI creative products.

What sets Wand apart from its competitors is its compatibility with mobile, tablet, and soon, desktop platforms. Davis believes this flexibility enhances the editing process, provides more graphical tooling options, and allows artists to use the Apple Pencil for Wand's illustration tools. The recent funding will be used to develop collaborative team features and expand creative tooling, particularly for desktop use. Wand also plans to invest in improving foundation model architectures and fine-tuning techniques. The funding round involved various participants such as Betaworks, Charge Ventures, Long Journey, Notation Capital, Twelve Below, and BDMI. Notable angel investors include Amy Wu, Eden Chen, Jared Hecht, and Steve Martocci. Looking ahead, Wand is exploring ways for artists to share or monetize the models they have fine-tuned through their work. The company believes that this can provide recognition and compensation to artists, but is cautious about implementing this feature to ensure it safeguards against theft or the distribution of harmful content. Additionally, Wand is interested in expanding its applications to 3D modeling, with the aspiration of automating the transformation from 2D designs to 3D models using AI. Davis views Wand as an ideal platform for this expansion due to its existing toolset that can naturally extend into the 3D realm.