Last Updated: 26 March 2025
Arcade, the AI-powered platform that lets users create one-of-a-kind physical products through simple text or image prompts, has raised $25 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by Canaan Partners and Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Adverb Ventures, Factorial Funds, and notable follow-on investment from existing backers like Reid Hoffman, Sound Ventures, and Torch Capital. The new raise brings Arcade’s total funding to $42 million.
The announcement comes alongside a major expansion: Arcade is moving beyond custom jewelry and entering the home goods space, starting with made-to-order rugs.
This follows a successful beta launch in September 2024, during which users generated more than 650,000 unique jewelry designs in just three months—making it the largest jewelry assortment created by consumers online.
Arcade’s move into home goods kicks off with customizable rugs, merging AI design tools with centuries-old artisan techniques.
Customers can design a rug through a simple text prompt—or use Magic Match, a new feature that lets users upload a photo of their room to generate a rug that complements the space.
The AI takes into account room style, color palette, and even individual maker aesthetics to deliver rug designs that are both unique and production-ready.
Buyers can tweak every detail, from the exact dimensions and shape to materials like flatwoven cashmere or high-pile alpaca. Once finalized, the rugs are handwoven by a curated network of artisans, with customers receiving free samples before production begins. Pricing is transparent and direct-to-maker, offering more customization and control than traditional retail options.
"Today, every category is up for reimagination, with AI fundamentally reshaping consumer product experiences and business models. One immediate and profound opportunity is to truly deliver on personalization for consumers, proactively surfacing the best possible options tailored to someone's unique tastes, budget, and intents. Arcade is delivering on the premise and taking it one step further by enabling the consumer to participate in the creative process through a dynamic co-creation experience that provides entirely customizable end products."
Kirsten Green, Founder and Managing Partner of Forerunner
Arcade plans to use the new capital to accelerate the rollout of additional product categories, deepen its investment in proprietary AI design models, and enhance the overall shopping experience.
The company aims to create not just a design tool, but a fully immersive marketplace where consumers can co-create products that feel personal and purposeful.
With a growing supply chain of vetted makers around the world and increasingly sophisticated AI personalization tools, Arcade wants to position itself at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and technology.
"The magic of Arcade lies in its bold vision: empowering consumers to create, not just consume. Mariam's unparalleled experience, from Minted to Arcade, demonstrates her mastery of building platforms that marry artistry and innovation at scale. With AI at the helm and a robust supply chain, Arcade bridges the gap between digital creativity and physical product, offering consumers a unique opportunity to bring their ideas to life in ways never before possible."
Laura Chau, partner at Canaan
Founded by Mariam Naficy, a serial entrepreneur best known for founding Minted and Eve.com, Arcade is the latest venture to emerge from Heretic Ventures, her startup studio.
The company brings together independent makers, designers, and consumers in a marketplace where ideas can become real products—quickly, affordably, and at scale.
Arcade’s core idea is simple: speak your design into existence. Whether through images or prompts, users can describe what they want, and the platform translates that into real, manufacturable items—bridging the gap between creativity and production.
In addition to consumer tools, Arcade also runs a growing creator program that helps influencers and independent designers launch product lines without dealing with manufacturing or inventory. Early users include architect Tim Fu, artist Amber Vittoria, and AI creative Damilola Awoyomi.
Arcade’s home goods platform is live. Applications remain open for both makers and creators looking to join the platform.
“I'm thrilled to not only be bringing home goods onto our platform, but also be working with such a powerful group of investors to bring our vision for AI commerce to life. This braintrust, along with expanded capital, allows us to move quickly to launch a critical mass of categories and invest in differentiated AI technologies. We'll now be able not just to build a product creation tool, but the marketplace and magical shopping experience around it. This is the end of the 'null search result' in shopping.”
Mariam Naficy, Co-Founder and CEO of Arcade
Arcade has now raised a total of $42 million to date. The $25 million Series A round was led by Laura Chau of Canaan Partners and Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures, with additional backing from April Underwood of Adverb Ventures and Sol Bier of Factorial Funds.
Several of Arcade’s existing investors also returned for this round, including Reid Hoffman, Offline Ventures (Brit Morin), Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher), Inspired Capital (Alexa von Tobel), and Torch Capital (Jonathan Keidan).
New angel investors joining this round include Sara Beykpour, Kayvon Beykpour, Anna Veronika Dorogush, Eugenia Kuyda, and Marissa Mayer. They join previous backers such as Christy Turlington Burns, Colin Kaepernick, Karlie Kloss, David Luan, and Jeff Wilke.
"As someone who loves design, I could not be more thrilled for Arcade to build the first-of-its-kind platform that empowers designers and tastemakers to go past content creation and shift into full-blown product. Imagine being able to describe the product that you want and instantly find someone who can make it. This represents a platform shift that can change the way we shop. With Mariam's deep expertise in product customization at Minted, she is the perfect founder to embark on this."
Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Managing Partner at Inspired Capital
