Where Reface is headed: a new strategy, CEO transition, and plans for 2023

It's been a while since we've shared what's happening inside Reface. And we have something to tell.

Reface's story began 5 years ago. In that time, we've evolved from a startup with one viral face-swap app to a profitable product company with 187 people on board. We have also experienced a radical change of context – a war is going on in our country, and we deliberately continue to do business from Ukraine.

Today we are giving an update on what's next for Reface and our key priorities. Let's separate this  into 3 points.

1. Our mission is to empower content creation, and this remains a constant. This year we are betting on empowering with Generative AI.

Despite some changes in strategy, Reface remains faithful to its original mission – to empower content creators. This has always been an ambitious goal because the number of creators, tools, formats, and content distribution platforms is growing daily. But we still believe that our calling is to democratize AI technologies so ordinary smartphone owners can use them – to make a funny birthday video or to generate an avatar in a few taps.

Generative AI is an incredible trend we observed in the second half of 2022. According to BCG forecasts, this industry will reach $60 billion by 2025 and make up 30% of the entire AI market. This part of AI is designed to increase people’s creativity; we only need to develop handy tools to unlock its potential. With our expertise and resources, Reface is in a solid position to become a global leader in building Generative AI products.

2. Reface isn’t just a face swap app anymore. We have a new multi-product strategy and already several products in our portfolio.

We launched Reface based on face-swap technology, which was unique and had a competitive advantage for rapid scaling. In order to grow further, the company must quickly iterate product hypotheses, combining the capabilities of open-source solutions with the development of its own technologies. Therefore, we decided to focus on rapid product experiments in the niche of tools for creating and editing content using AI/ML.

Сurrently we have three working products in our portfolio: Reface, Revive, Memomet, and Metahead, as entirely new neural technology in development.

• Reface app remains high-quality, financially successful, and steadily used. Recently we launched an AI Avatar feature inside the app, which has excellent prospects.
• Revive app is a tool for image animation. The application became profitable in 2 months and has a high retention rate in the entertainment category (40% on the 7th day).
• Memomet is a mobile application that works as an editor for creating and searching for pro-Ukrainian memes. This project is not commercial but valuable to us. Without ads (!), 40,000 users tried Memomet and created 120,000 memes.
• Metahead is a technology for the neural rendering of 3D images based on 2D images. We announced it at Web Summit and Slush in 2022, we already have an MVP, and a separate team is working on implementing a full-fledged product.

And stay tuned, one of our new products will be announced in April.

3. Next, the company will be led by new co-CEOs

After 4 years in the company's top management, Dima Shvets is leaving the Reface team. It was an intense period with many difficult decisions, and full-scale war brought challenges that no MBA course could prepare for.

The new multi-product strategy will be implemented by new co-CEOs: Ivan Altsybieiev (CPO and co-founder) and Anton Volovyk (COO). Dima Shvets will be able to focus on his own priorities and will advise and support Anton and Ivan on strategic issues. Thank you, Dima. We really appreciate the work you’ve put in at Reface.

Anton and Ivan are the best new setup to take the company to a new level. The track record of their work in Reface in the positions of COO and CPO allowed the company to evolve into a more mature organization with a clear strategy and to transform into a multi-product company with millions of new users. Welcome new co-CEOs! Good luck, and Godspeed.

These were all our updates for this period. We are more motivated than ever to work for our mission and a better future for our country and team. It’s time to step on the gas!