The infamous Bangalore traffic has spurred memes and jokes, but it ended up inspiring this entrepreneur to start her own company. Kavita Jha's Eureka moment for her company KikSAR Technologies happened as she snaked her way through the unforgiving peak hour traffic in Bangalore everyday for hours on end. While waiting on the road, Jha would end up spending her time shopping online. "Oftentimes, the products I purchased didn’t meet my expectations resulting in returns and the associated distress and logistics nightmare that came along with it. At times, the product I received was different in colour, texture, or quality from what they show in the pictures and it didn’t really suit or fit my daughters for whom I used to do most of purchases," she said. 

Whenever she wanted to shop either online or in a retail store, she was at the mercy of the product listing page, like every other shopper. Sometimes, a great pattern would be unavailable in a preferred colour, or a particular apparel didn't look very good on her despite appearing enticing on the shelf. Jha thought that a personalised platform for apparel or fashion accessory based on one's exact preference, supplemented by a virtual try on (VTO) option was the need of the hour in ecommerce. Virtual Try-On mapped with hyper-personalization, styling and fitment leveraging AI and AR technologies became the genesis of KiksAR’s Virtual Try-On platform for fashion retail. 

Kiksar is a SaaS platform, where businesses have to pay one-time set-up fee for creation of the digital twins of their SKUs using their patented 3D technology besides setting-up the infrastructure and a recurring monthly fee based on number of active SKUs on our platform. The company generates AR tags and attach them to SKUs, so the shopping experiences can be hosted across their inhouse and third-party digital commerce platforms with simple integration scripts. For in-store experiences, the company provides apps that can be installed on Android and IoS tabs and windows desktops. 

The startup offers VTO solutions across eyewear, jewellery, makeup, accessories like masks, hijabs, turbans, scarves, watches, apparel and shoes. The AI driven engine helps provide marker-less and seamless real time experience across devices and platforms such as ARCore/Non AR Core, ARKit/Non ARKit, windows, browsers – desktops / laptops / mobiles -Android and iPhone. The full stack technology is built around intersection of AI, gaming and 3D. KiksAR provides configurators for eyewear, jewellery and apparels for several global brands. With a configurator, a shopper can place an order after a satisfactory experience with the customization and virtual try-on experience. This helps in curtailing e-commerce returns, which range between 25-40% for most sites. 

The startup's patented platform, specifically solving the fitment with millimetre accuracy leveraging AI, is the key differentiator. Kiksar Technologies has developed configurators for eyewear, jewellery and apparel, marker-less watches Virtual Try-On, fitment and measurements with millimetre accuracy, 3D model generations from 2D images and Virtual Try-On for innovative categories like face masks, hijabs, scarves, turbans. 

Today, Kiksar Technologies' proprietary solution is used by more than 40+ online customers and 250+ stores. In India, the company works with companies like Titan Eye Plus, Essilor – Coolwinks, Specsmakers, Vision Rx Labs, GKB and CKC Jewellers. "We consistently see a 20-25% conversions at Virtual Try-On level over 35 million Virtual Try-Ons that took place in the last 15 months on our platform. Considering a typical advertisement campaign gets you 0.25-0.5% leads, and given that our solution delivers 100X more eyeballs, businesses have started realizing that using Virtual Try-On with digital personalization is way to move forward.

Kiksar Technologies is part of Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network (QWEIN), a six-month curriculum comprised of dedicated mentorship, peer networking and masterclass workshops spanning finance, intellectual property strategies, sales, marketing and product management, among other areas of expertise. 

With the base platform for all the categories in place, in the next 18-24 months, Jha's vision is to add 1Mn+ SKUs to our digital catalog cloud and make the hyper personalization platform ubiquitious. The team is also planning to build sales in international markets like USA and APAC.