A New York City-based startup is changing the way we see and order food, from fast-food joints to wedding banquets. Since 2016, Kabaq has been perfecting a proprietary process for creating hyper-realistic culinary models – one of the most difficult products to capture in 3D – and partnering with restaurants, bakeries and caterers to bring their menu items to life. Kabaq is a subsidiary of The Glimpse Group, a virtual reality and augmented reality company comprised of multiple VR and AR software and services startups, and designed with the specific purpose of cultivating entrepreneurs in the VR/AR industry.
New York-based burger chain Bareburger is one of the first companies to use Kabaq’s technology.Kabaq
Co-founder Alper Guler says the idea for the product sprouted while dining with friends at a Turkish restaurant. His companions were not familiar with the menu items and were having trouble visualizing the dishes. Realizing that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, he decided to bring the idea to life. “When we first started Kabaq, companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Snapchat had been investing heavily in developing augmented reality (AR) platforms” says Guler. “We invested all our time around creating hyper-realistic 3D models that would work among all these platforms.”
Kabaq uses a photo-based system that captures food items within minutes and processes them on their cloud server to create ultra-realistic 3D content, optimized for AR. The company then manages and distributes this content to all AR-supported platforms for their clients, among them burger chain Bareburger and Magnolia Bakery.
Restaurants can buy a Kabaq photoshoot to capture 360-degree pictures of their food items so they can present to their customers as 3D images on their menu, which they manage through Kabaq’s admin interface. Restaurants can also provide pre-loaded menu iPads for customers to use on site, and delivery customers can combine different side dishes with main courses and see the food to scale on their own table. Caterers and event planners can use the platform to help potential clients choose items in a more compelling manner, onsite and to scale if desired.
At Magnolia Bakery, couples can preview their wedding cakes on scale and on site thanks to Kabaq.Kabaq
“We focus on creating experiences for web, Snapchat and Facebook platforms where we can distribute our content easier,” says Guler. Kabaq is useful as a marketing tool in these social media channels, as well as to create 3D, interactive banner ads for websites. “The AR market continues to grow along a traditional path for new technologies, from initial uses like playful entertainment, to large scale integration into everyday businesses, specifically advertising and retail showcasing,” says Guler. “Kabaq fills a large gap in the emerging market by providing true-to-life presentation and dynamic storytelling.”
After successfully delivering projects to major quick service restaurant brands including Domino’s, Grubhub, Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts, the company is looking to scale their business offering into other verticals including fashion, luxury and consumer packaged goods. Kabaq CEO Mike Cadoux says 2018 was a great year for AR. “Snapchat and Facebook enabled developers like us to push content on their platforms. Our view numbers went from 20,000 to one million in a week. Looking into 2019, with Apple and Google starting to support web-based AR experiences, I believe we will see more useful AR experiences from brands soon.”
According to International Data Corporation, the AR retail showcasing market is expected to show a 133% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the next five years, reaching $24.4 billion. “Companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Snapchat and Facebook are investing billions into the technology,” says Guler. “We see high-growth business with a product that is unique, proprietary, and necessary for brands as they build their AR content portfolio.”