Startup of the Day: Latvian AR creation platform Overly

The Riga-based startup Overly develops an augmented reality platform that allows the creation of compelling AR experiences quickly and easily. It was launched in 2021 by Ainārs Kļaviņš and Gatis Zvejnieks, who have more than a decade of combined AR industry experience. Overly already has 12,000 registered users, and this month, it joined the Startup Wise Guys XR accelerator program to take the platform to new heights.

In the Startup of the Day feature, co-founder and CEO at Overly Ainārs Kļaviņš shares details about the startup’s idea, its product, team, and early results.

The Startup of the Day feature on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Overly is an augmented reality (AR) startup. Our core product is a web-based AR creator. The mission behind our platform is to empower anyone with an augmented reality idea to bring it to life, with no coding skills required.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Overly’s cofounder Gatis and I first launched an augmented reality solution and development agency in 2014. Over the years, we saw how small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) increasingly express interest in AR. However, with most tools in the market designed for corporate budgets, AR remained out of reach for smaller companies.

Even when do-it-yourself (DIY) AR platforms started to pop up, they seemed to overlook amateurs’ challenges. AR creators were complex to use and required significant learning and technical involvement. Clients would ask us to use these platforms on their behalf to create AR campaigns.

The gap in the market inspired us, and we decided — in a world where every augmented reality platform tries to be PhotoShop, we should launch Canva. We decided to shift our business model and develop the most accessible Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) AR platform out there.

How long did it take you to reach MVP? What difficulties did you encounter?

It took us around a year to create an MVP. The key challenge for us was to narrow our scope and establish the priority features that should be integrated first.

Financing our idea was also quite an interesting journey because you need a team to create an MVP before it generates any return on investment. Luckily, once we released the MVP, we had paying customers straight away. This gave us confidence that we were moving in the right direction.

When exactly did you launch your product? 

Overly AR Creator was launched in 2021. Although it’s transformed so much this year, and we add new features weekly, the platform is still at the MVP stage. For us to consider the platform no longer an MVP, we need to implement a bunch of integrations that will make AR creation even more seamless.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We’re a Software-as-a-Service platform. Our platform offers a subscription-based service, and people can opt for either monthly or annual prepayment. We offer two types of plans. The business subscription caters to our key audience—SMEs, while Personal plans let individuals create their hobby projects at the most affordable rate in the market.

What are your target markets and consumers? 

As mentioned before, we focus on the SME sector. Our clientele is quite heavily focused on the marketing and advertising segment, but this can be both agency and in-house creative teams. Our primary target markets include English-speaking users, and our outbound marketing primarily focuses on the UK and US.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated?

We launched Overly AR Creator in early 2021. Once we saw an apparent demand, in December 2021, we formed a strong team that actively worked on both product development and marketing. Results are great as our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) grows by 18% on average. We have more than 12,000 registered users and more than 10,000 monthly website visits.

What about your team? How many people are working for the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We currently have a team of seven: two founders, three software developers, a marketing manager, and a product owner.

Have you already raised any investments? Please, provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, and the purpose of the investment.

We have received pre-seed investment from Startup Wise Guys, and we’re part of their accelerator program. The primary purpose of these funds is to support our journey throughout the accelerator and invest in organizing our processes. This will prepare us for the next investment rounds.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We’re on a mission to make Overly the leading platform for augmented reality creation. For this to happen, we have to ensure we offer the easiest and most accessible solution in the market.

If we step back to what’s next in the near future — we want to complete the SWG accelerator and prepare for the next investment round.