Onton Raises $7.5M to Expand AI-Powered Shopping Beyond Furniture

AI is no longer just for generating content or summarizing text — major tech companies are now applying it to shopping. OpenAI, Google, and Amazon have all invested heavily in AI assistants designed to explore product categories and suggest items tailored to consumers’ needs.

Startups are also entering this space. Companies like Perplexity, Daydream, and Cherry have developed AI-driven tools for product discovery, helping users navigate online shopping more efficiently.

Explosive User Growth

Onton, formerly known as Deft, has seen remarkable growth in this trend. The AI-powered furniture shopping platform reports that its monthly active user base has surged from 50,000 to over 2 million, processing millions of searches and image generations in the process.

$7.5 Million Funding Boost

To capitalize on this momentum, Onton announced a $7.5 million funding round led by Footwork, with participation from Liquid 2, Parable Ventures, and 43, among others. This latest investment brings Onton’s total funding to approximately $10 million.

The company plans to use the funding to expand into new categories, starting with apparel and eventually branching into consumer electronics.

Rebranding for Clarity

Earlier this year, the company rebranded from Deft to Onton, citing confusion around the original name and difficulty in securing a premium domain.

Zach Hudson, co-founder of Onton, explains that while large language models (LLMs) are effective at predicting intent, they have not fully solved e-commerce challenges. “We’ve noticed that the average time a consumer takes to make a purchase decision has increased,” he said.

Smarter AI with Neuro-Symbolic Architecture

Onton leverages a neuro-symbolic architecture to enhance its AI. According to Hudson, this approach eliminates the hallucination problems often seen in LLMs, delivering more logical and accurate search results. The model also learns from real-world information that may not appear in product descriptions.

“For example, if you’re looking for pet-friendly furniture, our tools know that polyester items are more stain- and scratch-resistant, making them more suitable for pets. Our system learns from every search and improves rapidly,” Hudson explained.

The AI also handles scenarios where a product might have different names across various platforms, improving the relevance of search results.

Innovative Features for Smarter Shopping

Onton has introduced multiple input methods to help customers make better decisions. Users can upload an image or provide a prompt describing their ideal home or office setup, and Onton will suggest furniture accordingly.

The platform also includes an infinite canvas with image generation, allowing users to combine existing images with products for ideation. You can even upload a photo of a room and have Onton furnish it virtually.

“These features offer more options than a simple chat interface, helping consumers find exactly what they want, even if they can’t describe it perfectly,” Hudson said.

Higher Conversion Rates

With these innovations, Onton reports a 3-5x higher customer conversion rate compared to traditional e-commerce sites, thanks to more reliable underlying data.

Hudson noted that these technological and interface improvements will make launching new categories, like apparel, easier. The company is actively building its catalog and plans to roll out the vertical soon, facing competition from startups such as Daydream, Aesthetic, and Style.ai.

Expanding the Team

Onton has grown its full-time team from three employees in 2023 to 10 and aims to expand further to 15, hiring additional engineers and researchers to support its ambitious growth plans.