Omi, a Paris-based graphic design startup, successfully raised a $6M Seed round in 2024 using a deck that leans heavily on the 'show, don't tell' principle. The 20-slide presentation (of which 10 key slides were analyzed) focuses on the friction of traditional content creation—citing that 51% of marketers spend 5-10 hours weekly on visuals—and positions 3D rendering as the solution for the $300B AR market. By leading with high-fidelity renders that look indistinguishable from photography, Omi bypasses the need for complex technical explanations. The deck is light on financial metrics but heav…
Key takeaways
- The deck leads with a 'Turing Test' for images, using a photo-realistic render on Slide 2 to immediately prove the product's quality.
- Market pain is quantified on Slide 4, noting that 50% of visual assets live less than 2 days, necessitating faster production tools.
- The team slide (Slide 3) highlights significant platform experience, with the CEO having served as a Business Lead for Instagram and Facebook.
- Omi targets a massive projected $300 billion AR market by 2026, as stated on Slide 5.
- The product interface is shown in an 8-panel grid on Slide 6, emphasizing a simplified, template-based workflow for non-designers.
- Social proof is a core pillar of the deck, with Slide 7 dedicated entirely to positive feedback from CEOs and founders of brands like 900.care and French Bandit.
- The business plan on Slide 10 focuses on geographic expansion into Spain and Italy and automating onboarding workflows.
- The funding ask is clearly stated on Slide 9 as 5,000,000€+, though publisher reports indicate they eventually closed $6M.
The Visual-First Seed Deck: Omi's $6M Strategy
Omi's pitch deck is a masterclass in using the product itself to sell the vision. In an industry like graphic design, where the output is the ultimate proof of utility, Omi avoids the trap of over-explaining their technology. Instead, they use the first two slides to perform a 'magic trick' that immediately validates their value proposition to an investor. By the time you reach the team slide, you have already seen that the software works. This teardown examines how Omi leveraged high-fidelity visuals and strong social proof to secure a $6M Seed round in 2024.
Slide 1 & 2: The Visual Hook
Slide 1 features a high-resolution image of a 'Manucurist' product bottle reflected in water against a sunset. There is no text. Slide 2 follows with a similar high-quality render of a juice bottle on a wooden table with the bold text: 'This is not a real photo.'
This is a powerful opening. It addresses the primary skepticism an investor might have regarding 3D rendering: 'Does it look fake?' By proving the 'uncanny valley' has been crossed before even introducing the founders, Omi establishes immediate technical credibility. It sets the stage for a product that can replace expensive studio photography.
Slide 3: The Pedigree
The team slide introduces Hugo Borensztein (CEO) and Paul Borensztein (CTO). The pedigree here is highly relevant to the problem space. Hugo's background as a Business Lead for Southern Europe at Instagram and Facebook is a massive signal for a company building a tool for social media marketers. He understands the buyers and the platforms where the content will live. Paul's experience at Payfit and Zenly provides the necessary engineering weight to suggest they can build a scalable SaaS platform. The slide also mentions a team of 10 people, showing the company is already past the 'two guys in a garage' phase.
Slide 4: Quantifying the Pain
Omi uses Slide 4 to define the 'why now.' They cite three critical statistics:
69% of marketers increased visual content usage in 2021. · 50% of visual assets live less than 2 days. · 51% of marketers spend 5-10 hours per week on visual production.
This slide builds a logical bridge between the high-quality images shown earlier and a business need. If content is ephemeral (lasting only 48 hours) but takes 10 hours to produce, the current model is broken. Omi positions itself as the efficiency layer that makes this volume of content sustainable.
Slide 5: The $300 Billion Opportunity
The deck shifts from the immediate pain of social media to the future of commerce. Slide 5 highlights Augmented Reality and Metaverses . It notes the AR market is projected to reach USD 300 billion by 2026 and that 83% of consumers consider the future of shopping to be 'mixed-reality.' By linking their 3D rendering tool to these 'new eCommerce frontiers,' Omi elevates the company from a simple 'design tool' to a foundational infrastructure for the next generation of the internet.
Slide 6: Product Simplicity
Slide 6, titled 'We achieved simplicity,' shows an 8-panel grid of the software interface. It demonstrates a template-based workflow where users can change colors, textures, and lighting with a few clicks. This is crucial for their target audience—marketers, not professional 3D artists. The inclusion of the URL omi.so acts as a call to action, suggesting the product is live and ready for testing.
Slide 7: The Wall of Love
Social proof is often the most underrated part of a Seed deck. Slide 7 is a collage of testimonials from LinkedIn, email, and Slack. Notable mentions include Aymeric Grange (900.care), Coline Mazeyrat (Jho), and Mathieu Even (French Bandit). The quotes use emotive language like 'C'est bluffant' (It's stunning) and 'le rendu est dingue' (the rendering is crazy). For an investor, this slide proves that the product isn't just a cool demo; it is actively solving problems for real brand founders.
Slide 8: Expanding the User Base
Slide 8 argues that 'Any marketer can use Omi.' It breaks down the relevance across five departments: eCommerce, Social Media, Acquisition, Branding, and Display. By listing specific roles (e.g., Traffic Manager, CRM Manager, PR Manager), Omi is signaling a high 'land and expand' potential within a single corporate customer. This suggests a higher potential Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) than a tool limited to just one designer.
Slide 9 & 10: The Ask and The Plan
Slide 9 states the round is 'Raising Seed 5 000 000€ +' . The background image shows a variety of consumer goods (bottles, tubes, food containers), reinforcing the breadth of industries they can serve. Slide 10 outlines the 'Business' roadmap in three steps: growing the sales team, amplifying acquisition in France, Spain, and Italy, and automating onboarding. This is a standard but clear execution plan that tells investors exactly where their capital will be deployed: headcount and geographic expansion.
What Omi Does Exceptionally Well
The most impressive aspect of this deck is its visual hierarchy . In a sector where 'seeing is believing,' Omi lets the images do the heavy lifting. They don't waste time explaining the math behind ray-tracing or 3D modeling; they show a bottle that looks real and then tell you it isn't. This creates an immediate 'wow' factor that carries through the rest of the presentation.
Furthermore, the founder-market fit is undeniable. Having a former Instagram business lead building a tool for Instagram content is a narrative that investors find very easy to back. The deck successfully connects the founder's past (social media platforms) with the product's present (content creation) and the market's future (AR/Metaverse).
What Is Missing from the Omi Deck
While the deck is visually stunning, it is light on unit economics and traction data . There are no mentions of Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), churn rates, or Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). While this is common in early Seed rounds where the product is the primary driver, investors in a more cautious market might look for more concrete evidence of a repeatable sales motion.
Additionally, there is no competitive landscape slide . The graphic design and 3D space are crowded with giants like Adobe and emerging AI players like Midjourney or Canva. Omi assumes the investor understands why their specific 3D-focused approach is superior to generic AI image generators, but a slide explicitly detailing their moat (e.g., proprietary 3D assets or ease of use for product-specific renders) would have strengthened the case.
Founder's Playbook: What to Copy
Founders building in visual or creative industries should take note of Omi's 'Turing Test' opening . If your product produces a high-quality output, make that output the first thing the investor sees. Don't hide your light under a bushel of 'Problem' and 'Solution' text slides.
Another takeaway is the granularity of the user persona slide (Slide 8). Instead of saying 'we sell to companies,' Omi says 'we sell to these 12 specific job titles.' This shows a deep understanding of the internal corporate structure and gives investors confidence that the team knows exactly who to target with their marketing spend.
Finally, the social proof collage is a highly effective way to show momentum. Rather than one or two polished case studies, showing a 'messy' reality of Slack messages and LinkedIn comments suggests a genuine, grassroots enthusiasm for the product that is hard to fake.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Omi's core value proposition?
- Omi enables marketers to create photo-realistic 3D product images and videos without needing professional design skills. As shown on Slide 8, the platform is designed for diverse roles including e-commerce managers and social media leads, solving the problem of high-cost, slow-turnaround traditional photography for ephemeral social content.
- Who are the founders of Omi?
- The company was founded by Hugo Borensztein (CEO) and Paul Borensztein (CTO). Hugo brings significant social media ecosystem experience from his time as a Business Lead at Instagram and Facebook, while Paul has a technical background as a Site Reliability Engineer at Payfit and Zenly (Slide 3).
- How does Omi justify the need for its software?
- Slide 4 points to the 'ephemeral' nature of modern marketing: 50% of visual assets last less than two days. Because 51% of marketers spend 5-10 hours a week on production, Omi argues that traditional photography cannot keep up with the volume and speed required by modern social platforms.
- What is Omi's go-to-market strategy?
- According to Slide 10, the company plans to scale by growing its sales and support team from 1 to 6 people, amplifying LinkedIn and AdWords spend to dominate the French market, and expanding into Spain and Italy. They also aim to automate the sign-up and onboarding workflows to facilitate self-service growth.
- Does the deck include financial projections?
- The provided slides do not include a detailed financial model, P&L, or specific revenue metrics. The focus is primarily on product capability, market size ($300B AR market), and user testimonials. This suggests the Seed round was raised largely on product-market fit signals and team pedigree rather than long-term financial forecasting.
