CCB Magazine

A Look into Xibit: "We are reinventing the human computer interaction"

Photo: © Xibit

Imagine consuming art and cultural content in reality and online simultaneously. And besides that you can interact with other people too. Sounds interesting? Well, this is what Xibit is all about, a new platform founded by Zakaria Jaiathe and Abdeljalil Karam. The two founders of an Augmented Reality (AR) platform were in our joint consulting with us this year. We asked: Which paths did they take afterwards? How do they finance their project?

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Hi Zakaria and Abdeljalil! First of, please introduce yourself: Who are you and what do you do?

Zakaria: Hi, we are the founders of Xibit. I worked as a technology executive advisor for the SAP leadership in AR and VR and I’m very passionate about developing new features in this field.  

Abdeljalil: I’m a design thinking coach, engineer and previously co-founder of the Hybrid Thinking Academy. Xibit is a business to business platform. By using AR it connects you with various art experiences.  

Kreativ Kultur Berlin:What's so special about your project?

Zakaria: We are reinventing the human computer interaction (HCI). We have built an interface where people don’t need to click, scroll, or type in information in order to proceed as they do in standard desktop or mobile applications. Instead, they interact using only their body language. We are tracking their hand, eyes, and other contextual movements to predict what they want to do. For this AR application we recently won the Beautiful Software Award sponsored by companies like McKinsey, SAP, TechStars, and others.

We have built an interface where people don’t need to click, scroll, or type in information in order to proceed as they do in standard desktop or mobile applications. Instead, they interact using only their body language

Abdeljalil:Another aspect is that we’re bringing art and cultural content to young people, using a technology they are fond of. Xibit will be a social platform where young people won’t only be able to consume art and cultural content, but interact with other individuals as well. Last but not least, our solution is 10 to 100 times cheaper for businesses compared to the already existing solutions.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin:You were in our consulting this year. What kind of questions did you have? And what did you implement afterwards?

Abdeljalil: We wanted to know about existing financial support for creative startups. Moreover, we were interested in connecting with the community of the creative startup scene in Berlin. We have received valuable information about artists, networks, and cultural institutions working with AR applications. For instance: HTW - Aurora, Peer to Space, Ivo Wessel, The Glad Scientist. Moreover, as an outcome of your support, we have applied to Invest-Grant, which we successfully received. This grant gives us the support of the state by encouraging investors to invest in Xibit. For any amount invested, the state will give back 20%.

As an outcome of your consulting, we finally got the support of Invest-Grant

Kreativ Kultur Berlin:Do you have an advice for other startup founders? What mistakes should be avoided? And how do you finance a project like Xibit?

Zakaria:We have been financing our project from our own funds since day one. However, we decided to start raising money after getting more and more attraction. Then: when you are about to start a project, you will be mostly very optimistic about it. But as you proceed you might have doubts coming up. That’s alright, don’t worry, many founders go through that process. Whenever you feel the energy is low, that you lack guidance or something like that, the best you can do is to go out, talk to your potential customers, users, and even investors. When there is a lack of energy inside, go and find it outside! That has mostly helped us find inspiration even in the most difficult situations when we doubted what we were building.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin:Zakaria and Abdeljalil, last question: What are the next steps? Where and how do you see your future?

Abdeljalil: Our team is growing. Next year we will support AR-Kit and AR-Core, the mobile augmented reality, which will give us a huge reach to even a larger audience compared to our focus so far on augmented reality on a headset. We are also raising money at the beginning of 2020 to fuel this immense and ambitious growth.

Zakaria:So, if you are interested, please reach out to us directly: contact@xibitxr.com. And check out our website. We look forward to learning more tips, improve our pitch and become an even more successful startup.

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