SmartVizX is a first of its kind virtual reality based design platform that has been providing immersive visualisation, spatial awareness and interactivity along with the data management from end-to-end. Well aware of the gaps in the industry, the founders, Tithi Tiwari and Gautam Tiwari, are focused on bridging the same. “Gautam and I have had a combined experience of about 40 years working in the architecture and design industry. In our professional experience, we were always curious to discover new ways to collaborate better with all stakeholders in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry,” says Tithi Tewari, Managing Director & Founder, SmartVizX, adding that with this idea in mind, they started SmartVizX in 2015. A year later, they raised their first funding round with Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India (SA&E India).
Advent of Trezi
“We began our journey of integrating the use of immersive technologies with architecture and interior design, by building a number of virtual reality tools (ArchViz, 360 Viz, ViViz) and services to offer a variety of immersive visualisation experiences to users of their homes and offices,” explains Tewari, adding that while this approach saw reasonable traction and was a good learning experience, they wanted to build a product which could easily be adopted and used by the entire community of architects and interior designers. “And that sparked the creation of Trezi,” remarks Tewari, pointing out that Trezi is a fully immersive Virtual Reality product that dramatically improves design communication and collaboration by enabling team members to experience the project’s design at full scale. Trezi advances the understanding, communication and translation of workplace interior design for all stakeholders in the design process, directly resulting in reduced errors and omissions, time spent re-visiting decisions, and material wastage.
The target consumer segments comprise architects, interior designers, and building product manufacturers. “We aim to provide them, via Trezi, a common platform to collaborate on the interior design in an immersive environment that bridges the design communication gap that exists today,” says Tewari. She further elaborates that Trezi helps architects and interior designers improve their awareness, perception, and understanding of space and the relationships between design elements, and creates a new medium for them to explain, communicate, share and collaborate on design with colleagues and other stakeholders. Trezi supports decision making and helps resolve issues during design review, as early in the project lifecycle as possible. “Trezi also helps building product manufacturers reduce their costs associated with product display, physical mockups and paper catalogs, improve their sales and marketing by differentiating their sales pitch and better product experience, and decrease their risk of delivering the wrong product(s) to the project site,” she mentions.
Collaborative immersive platform
The company is combining the rendering capabilities of game engines used by video gamers with cloud and other software technologies to build a collaborative immersive platform for 3D design, informs Tewari, reminding that this is something the industry has lacked so far. “We have some critical thinkers in the profession using Trezi already and that is a vindication of what we are setting out to achieve,” she says with pride.
Trezi will evolve into a platform. Also, Trezi will expand its focus from the Indian market to global markets. SmartVizX already has international architects and interior designers in South East Asia using Trezi.
For the last two years, the company has been awarded the Virtual Reality Provider of the Year by Frost & Sullivan India. The startup was also selected to be a part of the Microsoft ScaleUp India cohort of 2018.