Pattern-Making AI Startup Snatches $1.3 Million in Seed Round

Meghan Hall
·3 min read

London-based Myth AI nabbed $1.3 million in seed funding from a group of angel investors for its artificial intelligence-based pattern design technology.

Backers for the raise included Emre Kozlu, Birkan Kül and Faik Ulutas. Ulutas works with Turkey’s Mensa Textiles; Kül works with Turkish grocery delivery startup Getir and Kozlu serves as director of strategy and program delivery at Philip Morris International.

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Myth AI works to reduce waste in the fashion industry by streamlining pattern-making processes for manufacturers and designers. Per the startup, it helps to combat waste caused by fabric swatches and garment prototypes.

Myth’s AI technology allows users to generate unique patterns for textiles; edit the colors on generated patterns; generate clothing patterns; suggest color combinations and assist with quality control by inspecting printed patterns for defects.

Already, the startup has partnered with global fabric mills and suppliers such as Elyaf Textile, Telater, Sun Textile, Ratti, Hamer Fabric and more.

It recently expanded into the United Kingdom, and much of the seed funding will be devoted to the new market. But Myth won’t stop there—the funding will also help broaden its reach into other geographic regions, Özgecan Üstgül, the company’s founder and CEO, said.

“We are now more focused than ever on achieving our goals and expanding our reach in the UK market and beyond. We have seen great interest from Asian-based manufacturers and designers in our technology, and we plan to target that market by attending several textile exhibitions in the first half of 2024,” she explained. “We also plan to extend our presence in the U.S. market with new distributorship and specific collaborations in the second half of the year.”

In Europe, Myth AI’s primary market at the moment, the company can issue certificates for legal ownership of patterns generated with the technology. Copyright regulations around AI in the U.S. are murky, particularly for fashion retailers, so it remains to be seen if that capability can be duplicated in the states.

Üstgül also noted that the startup will add talent to its team in marketing, sales, data management, architecture and machine learning-focused positions.

Now that Myth has received the funding, she said, the company will focus on expanding its customer base, improving its AI models to better serve its customers and increasing its revenue, particularly in the new regions it explores.

The company has lofty goals for 2024. In 2023, Üstgül said, Myth AI grew by nine times. In the year ahead, the goal is to replicate that growth in each region of the world that the company works in.

With the rate of adoption Üstgül has already seen, that could be possible.

“I am very excited that our customers are keen on adopting new artificial intelligence technologies sooner than I expected, because the transformation is real and cannot be [neglected]. We believe that advancements in AI will continue to revolutionize the way businesses operate and transform customer experiences,” Üstgül told Sourcing Journal.