Israeli-German online clothing size company UPcload has been named Germany's Start-up of the Year by Deutsche Startups. UPcload aims to solve the problem of shopping for clothes online through the use of a webcam, CD, and specialized software, which enable customers to exactly measure their body dimensions in order to pick the right-sized clothing.
Israeli expatriate Asaf Mozes and his German partner Sebastian Schulze founded the company. Based in Berlin, UPcload has a strategic development partnership with Israeli software developers in Tel Aviv under chief scientist Dr. Mor Amitai, a former CEO of Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN).
UPcload's software measures a customer's body dimensions, such as arm and leg length, neck, chest circumference by a standard webcam, uploads them within minutes, and provides clothing size recommendations. The customer, wearing reasonably tight-fitting clothes, holds a CD or DVD in front of his or her navel. The system takes a picture and then runs it through object recognition processing. Since the system knows how big a CD is, it can work out the customer's relative body dimensions.
"Using the measurements of the CD as a known parameter, we can translate each pixel into centimeters and obtain an indication of the size in the picture," Mozes told "Globes" in an interview in November.
UPcload uses data provided by fashion chains about their collections. This data includes precise measurements, in contrast to the measurements customers find in stores, such as Small, Medium, and Large, which vary from one article to the next. UPcload compares the fashion chains' data with a customer's precise measurements in order to recommend the best clothing fits to the customer.
UPcload's solution can also state whether an article of clothing will be too tight across the chest, or too loss across the stomach. UPcload's solution gives customers confidence that the clothing ordered online will fit and that it will not be necessary to return the items purchased. Mozes says, "This gives a whole industry the ability to realize its potential, which has not really been achieved to date."
UPcload has raised $500,000 to date from private investors and also received $400,000 grant from the German government's entrepreneurship fund, Gründerland Deutschland (Start-up Nation Germany). UPcload is planning a new financing round and to open a sales office in the US. Its customers include German and international fashion labels, including Youtailor and North Face, which are participating in the company's recently launched beta stage.
In October, UPcload participated in TechCrunch's Disrupt Beijing start-up competition.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 21, 2011
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