AI Picasso

What AI Picasso does

AI Picasso Inc. (AI Picasso株式会社) is a Tokyo-based, privately held Japanese company that operates an AI image and avatar generation platform centered on a consumer mobile application (iOS, Android) and a LINE-distributed beauty maker service. The company also exposes its proprietary image generation models via enterprise APIs (Picasso Diffusion and Picasso AI Beauty). The user base is predominantly Japanese consumers seeking AI-generated illustrations, stylized avatars from personal photos, pet illustrations, profile photos, and beauty transformations, served through a freemium model with paid features for avatar, pet, profile, and costume generation.

The underlying technology stack is built on Stable Diffusion XL 1.0, with multiple proprietary fine-tuned models developed in-house: the Emi series (Emi, Emi 2, Emi 2.5) specialized for anime/manga, Manga Diffusion for manga using public-domain and licensed data, Picasso Diffusion for commercial anime, CommonArt for bilingual Creative Commons training, and Clean Diffusion trained solely on public-domain images. Training is performed on NVIDIA H100 GPU instances through ConoHa byGMO (GMO Internet Group), and a CVPR 2024 paper has been incorporated into Emi 2.5. The flagship innovation is AI Dance, a self-claimed world-first mobile feature that generates dance videos from a single photo using pose data and continuous image generation.

The business model combines a freemium consumer mobile app, LINE-based beauty and avatar stamp services, an AI素材.com marketplace for commercial-use AI images, and a B2B enterprise API with quote-based pricing. Revenue is generated primarily through in-app purchases for premium consumer features; the AI Avatar paid feature reportedly gained 200,000+ users in approximately two weeks. The company operates with a very lean team (1-10 employees), no disclosed venture funding, and has announced that its service will terminate on August 4, 2025, with refund processes for paid iOS and Android subscribers.

Name

AI Picasso

Legal name

AI Picasso Inc.

Website

https://aipicasso.app

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

AI Picasso is a Tokyo-based company that operates a consumer AI image, avatar, and dance-video generation mobile app (iOS/Android/LINE) and exposes proprietary anime-specialized image generation models via enterprise APIs. The service is scheduled to terminate on August 4, 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Generative AI Image & Video Software

NAICS

Graphic Design Services (54143)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management) (HDAEANAA)

Keywords

• AI image generation
• Avatar creation software
• Anime AI art
• Dance video AI
• Enterprise AI API

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Consumer Mobile App (Freemium): AI Picasso operates as a freemium mobile app on iOS and Android. The app offers free AI illustration/image generation via prompts. Paid features include AI avatar, AI pet, AI profile, AI costume, and other advanced generation features. Revenue is generated from in-app purchases and paid plans across App Store and Google Play platforms. The company announced service ending on August 4, 2025 with refund support for existing paid plans.
2. LINE-based Services: AI Picasso offers LINE-accessible services including AI Beauty Maker and AI Avatar Stamps. These are accessed via LINE's platform, with AI美女メーカー available for free. Revenue from LINE services may come from LINE's messaging platform ecosystem.
3. Enterprise API Licensing: AI Picasso provides API access to its proprietary image generation technologies (Picasso Diffusion, Picasso AI Beauty) for business customers. Targeted at enterprises for advertising materials, magazine covers, manga/comics, and other commercial applications. Custom pricing is available per inquiry for complex use cases and PR/advertising projects.
4. AI Materials Site (AI素材.com): AI Picasso operates AI素材.com, an AI material site offering AI-generated images for commercial use.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

AI Picasso is a Japanese AI-based image generation platform that operates a consumer mobile app (iOS, Android, LINE) and an enterprise API. Its offerings include text-to-image generation, AI avatar creation from 10-20 uploaded photos, AI pet illustration, AI profile photo generation, AI beauty transformation, and a world-first AI dance video generation from a single still photo. The company also develops and distributes proprietary anime/manga-specialized AI models (Emi, Emi 2, Emi 2.5, Manga Diffusion, Picasso Diffusion, Picasso AI Beauty) trained on licensed and public-domain data.

Product overview

AI Picasso operates a multi-feature AI image generation platform centered on the AI Picasso (AIピカソ) mobile app, which offers text-to-image generation, avatar creation, and video generation capabilities. The product portfolio includes consumer-facing features (AI Avatar, AI Pet, AI Profile, AI Beauty Maker, AI Dance) and open-source AI models (Emi, Emi 2, Emi 2.5, Manga Diffusion) distributed via Hugging Face. Enterprise API services provide access to Picasso Diffusion and Picasso AI Beauty models. The company also developed CommonArt and Clean Diffusion for ethically-trained image generation. The platform is notably integrated with LINE for beauty maker services and LINE stamp creation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI素材.com: AI material website operated by AI Picasso Inc., offering AI-generated image assets.
• AIいらすとや
• Loose AI
• CommonArt
• Clean Diffusion
• Manga Diffusion
• Picasso Diffusion
• Picasso AI美女
• Unlimited Replicant
• Picasso Beautiful Japanese

Products and services

• AI Picasso Mobile App Japanese AI drawing/illustration app available on iOS and Android that generates images from text prompts with various AI generation features including avatars, pet illustrations, and profile photos. Built using proprietary AI models (Emi series, Manga Diffusion, Picasso Diffusion).
• AI Avatar Photo-to-illustrated-avatar transformation feature for Japanese consumers; users upload 10-20 face photos to generate approximately 50 stylized avatar illustrations including watercolor, art poster, and movie-style variations.
• AI Pet Photo-to-illustration transformation for dogs and cats; users upload 10-20 pet photos to generate approximately 50 stylized pet illustrations for use on social media platforms such as Instagram.
• AI Profile Professional studio-quality profile photo generation from 10-20 face photos; designed for Japanese aesthetics, creates realistic virtual profile images.
• AI Beauty Maker LINE-based service that transforms a single photo into multiple AI-generated beauty images; accessible by adding the official LINE account (@aigirl) and sending a photo.
• AI Avatar LINE Stamps Custom LINE stamp creation feature that converts AI-generated avatars into LINE stickers usable directly in LINE messaging.
• AI Costume Costume-themed avatar generation feature suited for Halloween and seasonal celebrations; creates avatars in various costume outfits.
• AI Dance World-first generative AI video technology that creates dance videos from a single still photo using proprietary AI models trained on massive dance video data, pose data, and continuous image generation.
• Picasso Diffusion API Anime-specialized image generation API trained on legally collected images, suitable for advertising materials, cover illustrations, and commercial applications; offered via enterprise license.
• Picasso AI Beauty API Japan-specific beauty-focused image generation API that produces model-level beautiful men and women suitable for advertising use; available via enterprise license.
• Emi AI Art Image Generation Model First commercial-use anime/manga-specialized AI art image generation model built on Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 with NVIDIA H100; approximately 2x higher definition than previous models, trained without unauthorized copied images.
• Emi 2 AI Art Image Generation Model Improved version of Emi with enhanced full-body stability and approximately 2x higher resolution; commercial use permitted, built using NVIDIA H100 via ConoHa byGMO, trained without unauthorized copied images.
• Emi 2.5 AI Art Image Generation Model High-resolution version of Emi 2 integrating CVPR 2024-accepted paper technology; supports full HD+ resolution (e.g., 1356x2688), improved full-body character generation stability, commercial use permitted, trained without unauthorized copied images.
• Manga Diffusion AI Image Generation Model Concept-verification manga-specialized image generation model trained only on public-domain, CC-0, and copyright-permitted images including the Manga 109s dataset from the University of Tokyo's Aiza Lab.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200,000+ users in approximately 2 weeks for AI avatar feature as a paid service
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability6 records

Feature13 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Stability AI JapancoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 January 2024AI Picasso Inc. was selected as the second startup in Stability AI Japan's startup support program. The program aims to strengthen the generative AI startup ecosystem, with both companies pursuing a long-term partnership for growth. AI Picasso will leverage Stability AI's solutions within the AI Picasso app, including its world-first AI dance video feature. CEO 冨平準喜 noted that the company's app was launched just 3 days after Stable Diffusion's release, and the partnership will further strengthen collaboration including Stability AI's Stable Video Diffusion and AI Picasso's AI dance technology.
• GMO Internet Group (ConoHa byGMO)coreTechnology or IntegrationAI Picasso uses GMO Internet Group's ConoHa byGMO service with NVIDIA H100 GPU instances for developing its image generation models (Emi, Emi 2, Emi 2.5). The cutting-edge development equipment (NVIDIA H100) enables the training of high-quality anime-specialized image generation models.
• いらすとや (Irasutoya / Mifune Tashikun)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAI Picasso collaborated with いらすとや (Irasutoya), operated by Mifune Tashikun, to create AI Irasutoya — a feature that generates illustrations in the いらすとや style. Approximately one year of consultation resulted in いらすとや providing images and descriptions for model training under appropriate compensation arrangements. This collaboration was recognized as a creator royalty case by Japan's Cabinet Office. This is one of the company's key creator cooperation initiatives.
• Loose Drawing (Loose AI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAI Picasso partnered with Loose Drawing to create Loose AI — the world's first AI-generated image material site. The collaboration involved a long period of discussion and trial and error before Loose Drawing agreed to participate. Loose AI is available on AI素材.com.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Midjourney: Mid-journey operates a leading text-to-image AI generation service with strong artistic stylization, directly comparable to AI Picasso's core text-to-image capability. Both serve creators and consumers seeking high-quality stylized AI imagery, with overlapping anime/aesthetic feature sets.
• Lensa AI: Lensa AI is a mobile consumer app specializing in AI avatar and stylized portrait generation from user photos. It is the most direct functional comparison to AI Picasso's AI Avatar feature in the consumer avatar market.
• Picsart: Picsart is a mobile-first creative platform with AI image generation and avatar tools targeting consumers and creators. It competes with AI Picasso across consumer AI image generation, sticker/avatar creation, and mobile distribution.
• NovelAI: NovelAI provides anime-focused AI image generation models and subscription services, directly comparable to AI Picasso's Emi series and Picasso Diffusion. It shares AI Picasso's emphasis on anime-style output quality and commercial licensing.

Broad incumbents

• OpenAI (DALL-E): OpenAI offers DALL-E as part of its broader AI platform, providing text-to-image generation integrated with ChatGPT. While not specializing in anime/Japanese aesthetics, it represents the dominant well-capitalized general-purpose alternative to AI Picasso.
• Stability AI: Stability AI develops Stable Diffusion, the foundational open-source image generation model on which AI Picasso's Emi and related models are built. As both technology provider and direct competitor via Stability AI Japan, it is a uniquely entangled peer.
• Adobe (Firefly): Adobe Firefly is integrated into Creative Cloud, offering commercially-safe AI image generation. As the dominant creative-software incumbent with deep enterprise distribution, Adobe represents the broad incumbent AI Picasso would face in any B2B pivot.

Regional players

• Snow (Snow Corporation / Naver Z): Snow is a Korean-origin mobile camera and AI avatar/beauty app dominant in East Asia. It parallels AI Picasso's consumer AI beauty and avatar positioning, primarily serving Asian markets.
• Meitu: Meitu operates AI-powered photo beautification and portrait apps primarily across China and East Asia. It is comparable to AI Picasso's AI Beauty Maker and AI Profile features in regional Asian consumer beauty AI.
• Pixiv: Pixiv is Japan's largest illustration community platform with growing AI-generation features. As a Japan-focused illustration ecosystem with creator relationships, it is comparable to AI Picasso's anime/manga-specialized positioning and creator collaboration model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AIPicassoApp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about AI Picasso