What Granstudio does

Granstudio is a transdisciplinary design consultancy headquartered in Turin, Italy, founded in 2011 by Lowie Vermeersch. The firm provides automotive, mobility, and interaction design services to enterprise clients and startups, with a 74-person team operating from its Turin headquarters and a software development office in Kortrijk, Belgium. Its service offering spans strategic consulting (Amplify Horizon), concept design and prototyping (Design Tomorrow), experience design (Phygitize Experiences), and organizational workflow transformation (Evolve Workflows), delivered through Workshop, Sprint, and multi-sprint Project engagement formats.

The firm's central technology asset is DIGIPHY, a proprietary phygital design platform that combines a physical seating buck adaptable to any vehicle proportion with immersive virtual reality environments. DIGIPHY enables designers and engineers to experience and validate vehicle concepts at real scale before physical prototyping, reportedly reducing development cycles to two years in the case of Renault Group. The studio also conducts internal research on adjacent products including the mOSaic HMI operating system and 3D spatial interaction models for in-vehicle experiences.

Granstudio generates revenue through professional services contracts with automotive OEMs (Renault, Dallara, Lynk & Co, Drako Motors), EV and mobility startups (Lightyear, JIDU, Komma, Reefilla), industrial firms (Hitachi, Voltab), and consumer brands (Easywalker). The go-to-market is direct B2B sales with no channel or reseller model, supplemented by event participation (e.g., Bauma 2025) and a portfolio-driven content strategy. The company is privately held and founder-owned, with no disclosed external funding.

Name

Granstudio

Legal name

Granstudio S.p.A.

Website

https://granstudio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Granstudio is a Turin-based transdisciplinary design consultancy founded in 2011 by Lowie Vermeersch, providing automotive, mobility, and interaction design services to OEMs, EV startups, and industrial clients using its proprietary DIGIPHY phygital VR platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Turin

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Design Consulting & Strategy Services: Professional services revenue from design consulting, strategy, and engineering support engagements with automotive and mobility clients. Services are governed by separate written project contracts. Engagement formats include workshops, sprints, and full projects.
2. DIGIPHY Platform & Technology Services: Revenue from DIGIPHY-enabled physical-digital workflows, XR prototyping, and consulting services. The company is actively hiring Technical Sales & Business Developer for DIGIPHY, indicating a push to commercialize the technology platform and its ecosystem of services.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Granstudio is a transdisciplinary design consultancy that delivers automotive, mobility, and interaction design services to OEMs and industrial firms through structured workshops, design sprints, and multi-sprint projects. Its work spans vehicle exterior and interior design, HMI and UX strategy, and concept-to-prototype development, accelerated by DIGIPHY, its proprietary phygital platform that pairs an adaptive physical seating buck with VR. Services cover strategic design consulting, experience prototyping, XR-enabled validation, and engineering-aware production hand-off.

Product overview

Granstudio is a transdisciplinary design consultancy offering a unified portfolio combining its proprietary DIGIPHY phygital platform with structured design services. DIGIPHY serves as the core technology product—a physical seating buck paired with VR that enables immersive design validation—while complementary service modules (Amplify Horizon, Design Tomorrow, Phygitize Experiences, Evolve Workflows) provide strategic and executional support. Engagement formats include Workshop, Sprint, and Project engagements. The offering spans automotive design, mobility solutions, industrial design, HMI/interaction design, and XR prototyping. Notable projects include the mOSaic HMI research platform and various vehicle programs with clients including Renault, Dallara, Lightyear, Lynk & Co, and DRAKO Motors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• DIGIPHY: Granstudio's proprietary phygital design platform: a physical seating buck that adapts to any vehicle proportion, paired with VR to create a fully immersive design environment.

Products and services

• Amplify Horizon Strategic design consulting service helping clients define a clear direction by challenging assumptions, reframing problems, and aligning teams around future opportunities.
• Design Tomorrow Design and prototyping service translating validated concepts into designs and prototypes, enabling early validation of experience and feasibility.
• Phygitize Experiences Experience design service unifying vehicle, HMI, and service experiences into coherent systems across physical and digital touchpoints.
• Evolve Workflows Organizational transformation service embedding DIGIPHY-enabled physical-digital development workflows, breaking silos and accelerating validation through XR prototyping.
• Workshop Short, focused consulting engagements reframing challenges and unlocking creative momentum for design and innovation initiatives.
• Sprint Time-boxed rapid exploration cycles that test assumptions and build early clarity for decision-making through focused design sprints.
• Project Multi-sprint development cycles moving ideas from concept definition through feasibility testing and iterative prototyping toward production-ready outcomes.
• DIGIPHY Proprietary phygital design platform combining a physical seating buck that adapts to any vehicle proportion with immersive VR to create a fully immersive design environment, enabling teams to experience and validate vehicle concepts before any physical prototype is built.
• mOSaic Granstudio's HMI research operating system featuring modular smart tiles that users can freely position and configure to create personalized in-vehicle interface layouts.

Quantifiable outcome

• Renault Group reduced vehicle development cycles to two years using DIGIPHY technology, significantly cutting prototyping costs.
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Renault GroupflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerRenault Group partnered with Granstudio to develop DigyPHY, a phygital platform combining physical cockpit elements with immersive digital environments. The platform enables Renault to reduce vehicle development cycles to two years and significantly cut prototyping costs. Designers and engineers across Renault's global centers (France, Romania, South Korea, India, Brazil) collaborate in real time on virtual vehicles using VR headsets around life-size virtual car models at Renault's Technocentre.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Italdesign Giugiaro: Turin-based automotive design and engineering consultancy serving global OEMs across concept development, vehicle engineering, and styling services. Directly comparable to Granstudio's automotive design and engineering support work for clients like Renault and Dallara, and its closest geographic and service-line peer.
• Pininfarina: Historic Italian automotive design house headquartered in Turin offering exterior/interior design, engineering, and increasingly UX/HMI services to global OEMs. Directly comparable as a premier Italian automotive design consultancy serving flagship vehicle programs.
• Tata Elxsi: Global design, engineering, and digital services firm with deep automotive HMI/UX practice serving OEMs on software-defined vehicle roadmaps. Comparable to Granstudio as a design and engineering services peer operating across styling, UX, and embedded software at greater scale.
• EDAG: Independent engineering services provider for automotive OEMs with prototyping and integration capabilities. Comparable across full-vehicle engineering, prototyping, and digital development that overlap with Granstudio's production-readiness services.
• Callum: UK-based automotive design house founded by Ian Callum operating across vehicle design and brand-defining programs. Directly comparable as an independent, founder-led design studio serving OEMs on styling, interior, and turnkey vehicle development.
• Icona Design Group: Italian industrial and automotive design consultancy with prototyping facilities serving OEMs and emerging EV brands. Comparable in providing full-vehicle concept, exterior/interior design, and prototype development for new mobility entrants.
• BMW Group Designworks: Multi-industry design studio operating within the BMW Group on automotive, mobility, transportation, and consumer programs. Comparable as a design services firm serving OEMs on vehicle, UX, and brand-defining work for external and internal clients.

Broad incumbents

• Stellantis: Global OEM with in-house design capabilities across multiple brands (Fiat, Peugeot, Citroën, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, etc.). Relevant as an in-house design function whose strategic priorities shape the addressable external consulting market for studios like Granstudio.
• Harman International: Tier-1 automotive technology and UX supplier delivering connected car, ADAS, and in-vehicle experience solutions at scale. Comparable in addressing in-vehicle UX/HMI design challenges but as part of a much broader Tier-1 portfolio.

Others

• Elektrobit: Automotive software specialist focused on HMI, navigation, and connected car platforms for OEMs. Comparable as an adjacent provider enabling in-vehicle digital experiences that complement Granstudio's interaction design and HMI research work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@granstudio_official
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/granstudio
• Instagraminstagram.com/granstudio_official
• Xx.com/granstudio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

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 Granstudio