Generative AI Video Production Start-up FancyTech Wins 2024 LVMH Innovation Award

23 May 2024

A day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced 400 million euros of public investments in research and training on artificial intelligence, all eyes were on VivaTech.

Generative AI was the winning technology on the main stage, where LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chair and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault presented the LVMH Innovation Award Grand Prize.
He said that the group’s interest in technology and start-ups was rooted in its own history.

“In our group, we are managing 75 grown-up start-ups,” said the luxury industry titan. “Each of these companies that we call our maisons were at the beginning start-ups and family [ones].”

It went this year to China-based FancyTech, which specializes in 3D modeling and generative AI content production, particularly for video.

“This prize once again honors a start-up that puts technological developments at the service of excellence. I am confident that their expertise will match the ambition of our maisons and anticipate the expectations of our customers,” Arnault declared.

Arnault called the win “a unique opportunity to collaborate with our maisons and contribute to the transformation of the luxury sector.”

One piece of advice he shared with the audience was that “for start-ups, it’s key not only to have extraordinary ideas but to make them work very efficiently,” in addition to creativity, quality, entrepreneurial spirit and an athlete-like mindset.

Producing high-quality content in record time was one of success factors for FancyTech, cofounder Morgan Mao later told press. On a recent project with Hublot in China, its GenAI capabilities saw the company create 40 product videos in the space of two weeks, rather than months.

“We’re at the dawn of an era of transformation, where the emergence of GenAI requires that the use of artificial intelligence also call on human imagination. This fusion of mind and technology enables videos to be generated through generative artificial intelligence from 3D product modelling and a creative brief,” he declared.

The winner of the LVMH Innovation Award was selected from a record 1,545 applications from 89 countries, up from 1,320 the previous year, said Franck Le Moal, group IT and technology director of LVMH.
FancyTech also scooped up the Immersive Digital Experiences award.