According to EU-Startups, Kyiv-based AI app studio Reface has secured €15.2 million in non-dilutive user acquisition funding from Singapore’s PvX Partners. The funding, which amounts to about $18 million, is specifically earmarked for sales and marketing to drive growth for Reface’s suite of AI-powered consumer apps. The company, founded in 2018 and originally called Doublicat, first went viral after an Elon Musk face-swap and now boasts over 300 million downloads across its portfolio. Its products include the flagship Reface app for face-swapping, Revive for animating images, and Restyle for altering media styles. The capital will fuel expansion in creativity, wellbeing, and health categories, and the deal involves PvX Partners co-investing in the marketing budget in return for a share of revenue from newly acquired users. The company is backed by notable investors like Andreessen Horowitz and the CEOs of Supercell and Unity.
The non-dilutive game
Here’s the thing: this isn’t your standard Series B round. Calling it “non-dilutive user acquisition funding” is a fancy way of saying it’s more like a sophisticated marketing loan. PvX Partners isn’t buying equity; they’re essentially fronting the cash for Reface’s customer acquisition costs. In return, they get a cut of the revenue those new users generate, but only up to a pre-set cap. It’s a bet on Reface’s ability to not just attract users, but to monetize them effectively. For a company with 300 million downloads already, this structure makes a ton of sense. It lets them turbo-charge growth without giving away more of the company. But it also creates pressure—the apps have to be profitable enough on a per-user basis to make this math work. It’s a high-stakes, performance-based deal.
Beyond the viral gimmick
Everyone remembers Reface for the goofy face-swaps. I mean, when Elon Musk uses your app, you’ve hit a certain cultural peak. But that was 2020. The real story now is their pivot—or maybe expansion—into being a multi-app AI studio. Look at their portfolio: Reface.ai is the flagship, but they’ve got Revive for animation, Restyle, and others like unboring.ai. They’re trying to own the entire “AI-powered fun with your photos” space. It’s a smart hedge. Face-swapping is a viral feature, not necessarily a durable product category. By building a suite of tools around content creation, wellbeing, and health, they’re trying to find deeper, more habitual use cases. The question is, can they transition from being a party trick to an essential creative toolkit? The celebrity and brand collabs suggest they’re trying.
The Ukrainian factor
You can’t talk about Reface without acknowledging its Kyiv roots. Operating a major consumer tech company from a war zone is an immense challenge, and it adds a layer of resilience to their story that most Silicon Valley startups simply don’t have. They launched a humanitarian fund back in May 2022, donating half a million dollars. That context makes this funding round feel different. It’s not just growth capital; it’s a lifeline and a vote of confidence in a team that has kept building through extraordinary circumstances. Their backer list is also fascinating—it’s a blend of top-tier VC (a16z), gaming industry legends (Supercell’s CEO, Unity’s founder), and even music industry figures like Scooter Braun. That’s a unique coalition betting on AI’s consumer future. So, what’s next? With this cash, they’ll be flooding the app stores with ads. We’ll see if their new apps have the same magic touch as the original.
