Scapic Founders’ ShopOS Bags $20 Mn To Build AI-Based Ecommerce Solutions

AI-based ecommerce operating system platform ShopOS, launched by Scapic cofounders, has raised $20 Mn (around INR 171.4 Cr) in a seed funding round from Binny Bansal’s investment vehicle 3STATE Ventures.

ShopOS plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its product development, onboard more brand partners and talent acquisition with focus on engineering and product development.

Founded by Sai Krishna V K and Ajay P V, ShopOS is building AI-based ecommerce solutions. The startup leverages AI to assist brands with end-to-end ecommerce operations including catalogue operations, category management, pricing promotions, recommendations, marketing and more. 

Earlier, the founder duo also built AI/AR platform Scapic, which was later acquired by ecommerce giant Flipkart.

“ShopOS is building the commerce stack of the future with AI at its core. The potential for an AI-driven operating system to empower brands, particularly in navigating cross-border commerce and hyper-personalization is a lot,” said Bansal.

From Scapic To ShopOS

Ajay and Sai, the engineer-turned entrepreneur duo, have had their fair share of technology-front products in their respective careers. Artificial intelligence might be the flavour of the season for everyone today but both of them bring a wealth of experience in the sector.

Ajay and Sai launched Scapic with a vision to build visual technology that brings products to life. The startup is known for leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) to create 3D content for ecommerce and marketing segments. 

After the startup was acquired by Flipkart in an undisclosed financial deal five years ago, both the cofounders served at various leadership positions for the ecommerce giant, where they built their understanding around the gaps in the ecommerce ecosystem. 

“We started seeing that the whole pipeline is a bit broken and inefficient. There’s so many people involved and while automation is possible, there was no technology back then to reimagine the stack and fix them. Until now, where Generative AI allows us fix them grounds up,” Ajay told Inc42.

A few months after brainstorming, the founders established ShopOS, an end-to-end AI-based operating system stack for ecommerce brands, where they are assisted by AI agents to manage their stores, handling marketing, catalogue content generation and more.

ShopOS is operating on a vision to serve brands in different verticals. For instance, to make a catalogue, a brand has to incur multiple costs including photo studio and hiring models. However, the startup solves that problem by using generative AI and helping the brand with its digital catalogue content including text, videos, images and captions as per its need.

Similarly, there are other verticals, including marketing, advertisement and online store management, where ShopOS can leverage its AI technology to streamline tasks for ecommerce brands and automate a segment of their work.

“The brands need to dramatically shift the way commerce or shopping experience happens further and customers get it, ” Ajay added.

The Revenue Angle

While the startup is still at a nascent stage, it has onboarded clients, including France-based clothing brand Celio.

The company has currently discovered the catalogue vertical to be its Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Talking on the revenue model front, Ajay added that ShopOS is operating on a pay-as-you-go model, where brands can pay for the actual consumption of the product.

The fee is dependent on the amount of graphics processing unit (GPU) utilised while creating the desired product for the customer. While the company is going ahead with this model for catalogue verticals, it is going to analyse the mode of payment for other vertices in the next 12-18 months, Ajay added.

“For at least one or two verticals like advertisement or marketing, I’ll be very clear that it will either be ROAS based or a SaaS++ pay-as-you-go model.”

The Human Angle To AI-Centric Commerce

While AI is at the heart of ShopOS, the startup is planning to use its freshly raised capital in expanding its human workforce. 

With around 30-35 employees at the company, the founders are bullish on making ShopOS an amalgamation of AI and human workforce.

While the content creation segment will be taken forward by the AI at ShopOS, employees will look into quality assurance and understanding the brand identity. The startup also has an AI creative ops team to ensure quality services to the clients.  Besides, the company will focus on expanding its product and tech team by onboarding 20-30 more employees, to work on the AI operations of the company.

“We see human assistance is still what is required. AI cannot do it all on its own but I think it can reduce the working hours.” 

How Is AI Driving The India’s Ecommerce Segment

From AI-based customer support to AI trial rooms, the ecommerce segment has been continuously updating itself with emerging AI use cases. 

India’s ecommerce market, which is projected to cross the  $400 Bn mark by 2030, is transitioning to its AI alter ego. 

In May, Glance launched its Gen AI-based shopping app, allowing users to virtually try products before placing an order. 

“The future of commerce will be with AI at its core.” 

Similarly, there are several other platforms including Highperformr.AI, which assists social media platforms to boost their B2B campaigns and enhance return on investment.

The ecommerce segment has moved towards hyperpersonalisation and AI allows giants like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra to build on it. 

As per a report, more than 60% of Indian retail and ecommerce brands plan to increase AI investments in 2025, with both established players (like Flipkart and Amazon) and new-age D2C brands aggressively adopting AI-driven solutions.