SG deeptech firm BuzzAR raises $630K to blitzscale face-to-cartoon AI app

BuzzAR, a Singapore deeptech firm that offers augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to Fortune 500 companies in Singapore and China, has raised $630,000 from revenue-based financing and growth platform Choco Up.

The funding will provide a significant boost to BuzzAR during this pivotal time as the firm shifts focus from B2B to B2C, according to the announcement.

BuzzAR is a Singaporean AR+AI company that augments places and faces, with a vision to connect the next billion users by 2025. Co-founded in 2018 by lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Bell Beh and tech entrepreneur Ken Lim, the startup has provided AR solutions to major Fortune 500 companies in China and Singapore.

It has also signed an MoU with Alibaba’s affiliate, Cloudbae, as well as partnering with Bailian Group, China’s largest state-owned commercial distribution group.

Riding a wave of momentum, BuzzAR in August 2021 launched HappyToon, a proprietary Face to Cartoon AI Animation app and the first of its kind, leveraging computer vision and AR technology to inspire, delight, and connect users physically apart.

BuzzAR’s range of services for customers also includes an AR Wayfinder – a solution that employs point-cloud-based wayfinding that helps patrons navigate shopping malls using their mobile phone camera, while also enabling customers to view an establishment’s business details by simply pointing their phones towards the shopfront.

“At BuzzAR, we want to connect people and places, create the metaverse, Web3.0, and pioneer the next Smart AI revolution while at the same time giving users a novel and exciting experience,” said BuzzAR co-founder and CEO Bell Beh.

With global spend in mobile apps hitting $112 billion in 2020 and growing 25% year on year, BuzzAR aims to become the dominant player in the US, China, and Singapore, major markets of their existing fan base for the game, The Cooking Game, a mobile animated game co-developed by BuzzAR co-founder Ken Lim.

The game has grown from 0 to 20 million players without the help of venture capital (VC) funding.