We are independent – an EU-based project

Our story

1. / 01

   Early days with diffusion models and the first clients

   In 2023, when the first diffusion models appeared, it was clear to us that this technology offered a great opportunity to make visualizations available based on a photograph alone. Mature image-editing models did not exist yet. Our first solution combined several technologies: custom-trained classifiers for automatic scene detection, such as kitchen, living room, or exterior, and a system that automatically assembled a prompt from the context of the photo. Preprocessing with ControlNet followed, and processing on our own hardware with Stable Diffusion 1.5.

   It was fascinating. Without a single prompt from the user, INOLENS created visualizations that would have taken dozens of hours with traditional modeling and rendering in Blender. By today's standards, the quality of the outputs was low. But the ability to show a possible future state of a space in seconds, for a few cents per image, was enormous.

   We won our first clients quickly, through direct outreach. Since almost no brokers knew about AI edits at the time, we prepared one-to-one demos for them. In about two months, around 150 real estate brokers registered and tried the app, and many ordered the paid version as well. However, the first months of operation also revealed a degree of disappointment, because many outputs were of poor quality. The adoption of the first version ran into this experience.

2. / 02

   A new generation of models and trademark registration

   Later in 2025, the first NanoBanana model arrived, which fundamentally raised the quality of AI-generated images and greatly simplified edits based on input photos. It was an opportunity for a second generation of the project. In parallel, we applied to register the INOLENS trademark for the European market.

   During registration we met opposition from SNAP Inc., which owns a portfolio of brands from the LENS family of words. With its lawyers, we looked for a compromise on how we could use the name INOLENS in the context of AI and generated content. The process took several months and we were not sure we would manage to defend protection of the name. So as not to miss the technical upgrade to the NanoBanana model, we rebranded the new version of the app under the name FANTASPIC. We built a technically more advanced product, but we lost the vast majority of clients who were already using INOLENS. It was a hard lesson in how a client perceives their relationship with a product. The second factor was the availability of free tools for generating and editing photos. Competing with free alternatives is difficult. The project went into the background for several months.

   In the meantime, the trademark registration was successfully completed. With SNAP Inc., we found a definition of what INOLENS means that they were satisfied with and no longer saw as conflicting. The trademark was successfully registered and now plays the central role. The INOLENS® project is thus entering its third evolutionary form.

3. / 03

   A response to AI slop in real estate

   The high adoption of free AI tools has created an environment that already knows what generative AI can do. Brokers know how to prompt and understand that, besides the actual condition, a property's potential also matters for a sale. Real estate brokers now use AI visualizations routinely. It has not come without problems, though: amateur prompts written in free tools also produce many unwanted alterations. Such visualizations become a target of sharp criticism among buyers and brokers alike. The enthusiasm for cheaply improving listings with ChatGPT seems to be fading.

   This very situation is a new impulse for INOLENS® for another round of innovation. INOLENS® is no longer just an interface for conveniently creating AI visualizations, but a system of advanced rules and safeguards that turn AI visualizations into trustworthy material in the property sales process.

Our vision: an ingredient brand