Inside Flam’s Mixed Reality Play For The $5 Bn Ad Opportunity

Video streaming has grown into a $129.26 Bn global market and aims to reach $416.8 Bn by 2030. But this growth also marks a limitation of video as a medium as it remains largely one-way. Brands use it to communicate their positioning, but the audience rarely interacts with the content.

By blending physical and digital worlds, MR allows consumers to engage with the content, instead of merely consuming it. And, it has begun shaping advertising campaigns.

Shourya Agarwal, Malhar Patil, and Amit Gaiki built Flam back in 2021 as a platform for brands to publish MR content accessible through QR codes or links across digital and physical channels. They designed the platform to offer a seamless experience where users can scan a code and immediately interact with the content. 

In the last four years, Flam has worked with Samsung, Flipkart, Ajio, Dabur, Tanishq and a host of brands on their MR campaigns. It has raised $4.5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round in May 2024 from  Silicon Valley Quad, Inventus Capital Partners, Turbostart, Twin Ventures, and marquee angels like Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, VC veteran Ashish Gupta, celebrity cricketer KL Rahul and YRF chief Akshaye Widhani.

As the MR industry stays the course to surpass $40 Bn in market size, Inc42 spoke to Gaiki, cofounder and CTO of Flam, to comprehend how technology is changing the industry norms and how Flam is enabling this growth using GenAI. 

Here are the edited excerpts from the interview: 

Inc42: Mixed reality has turned into a game-changer, but it’s too complex to understand. How would you explain MR in simple terms? Also, how does Flam make it accessible to everyday users?

Amit Gaiki: Mixed reality is basically a blend of the real and digital worlds where virtual elements interact with your physical surroundings. At Flam, we focus on taking this concept out of the niche and into everyday life. Instead of relying on expensive headsets or complex apps, we use something everyone has – a smartphone. 

By simply scanning a QR code, users can experience immersive MR content through print ads, digital, retail, billboards, or even TV screens. This way, we’re making MR not just futuristic, but also practical and easy. 

Inc42: Getting a little deeper into the mechanism, what actually happens when someone scans a Flam-powered QR code?

Amit Gaiki: Flam guarantees an effortless interaction. There’s no app to download or complicated steps to follow – just open your phone’s camera, scan the code, and that’s all.

Let me share some examples. With Flipkart, we placed a Flam-powered QR code in a newspaper ad. Scanning it brings users to a virtual living room where they can browse TV deals using a digital remote, all within a mixed reality environment. For Samsung, we went a step further and created a voice-enabled MR experience. Here, users could navigate and explore the space simply by speaking. It’s an experience that doesn’t just respond, but speaks with the users.

The voice MR uses advanced speech recognition integrated with mixed reality to enable this hands-free, intuitive engagement. So, instead of just tapping or swiping, users can ask questions, give commands, or make requests, and the environment responds dynamically. This allows for seamless exploration and improves engagement by making the interaction more natural and personalised.

Inc42: How is Flam’s MR engine distinct from other MR solutions? 

Amit Gaiki: At Flam, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in mixed reality. Our MR engine stands out because it enables true interactivity, as users do not just view an experience, they actively shape it. With the Samsung campaign, Flam enabled users to engage with content in real time and influence how the experience unfolded and, with time, we realised that interactive voice is a natural progression for us, especially in a market like India, where voice messages are such an integral part of our digital behaviour. 

Our voice MR brings a sense of familiarity into the relatively new MR experience while also making it more intuitive and immersive. Globally, there are plenty of MR platforms, but what sets us apart is how accessible, interactive, and human our MR engine is for the end user.

Inc42: Going back to where it all started, what gaps in the content ecosystem convinced you to launch Flam? What specific technical hurdles did you have to face in building a scalable, QR-based MR engine? 

Amit Gaiki: When we entered the market, we saw a clear gap. Most MR solutions either required users to download a certain app or relied on a browser, both created major frictions. Due to user hesitation, app-based MR solutions led to high drop-off rates, while browser-based offerings struggled with performance and compatibility issues. 

We built Flam as a no-app MR ecosystem that runs directly through native interfaces. It works seamlessly across 100% of devices without asking users to install anything or compromise on quality.

On the technical side, building a scalable QR-based MR engine came with its own set of challenges. We had to optimise for real-time rendering, voice and gesture recognition, and spatial tracking, all within the lightweight environment of a mobile camera interface. 

Building it wasn’t easy at all, but it allowed us to overcome the hurdles and create an ecosystem that not only scales with ease but also delivers high-quality experience. 

Inc42: AR and MR often require specialised hardware, which limits the adoption. How are you making these accessible on regular smartphones? 

Amit Gaiki: You’re right, AR and MR traditionally depend on specialised hardware, which has limited how widely they can be adopted. At Flam, our focus has been on making these experiences accessible to anyone with a smartphone.

We have invested heavily in R&D, especially in computer vision and graphics, to make sure that our technology runs smoothly on everyday devices. Our patented tracking algorithms are designed to work directly with the camera feed, removing the need for any additional sensors or hardware.

Inc42: AI is central to your platform. How are you training it to understand brand identities and campaign objectives?

Amit Gaiki: AI is really the foundation of our creator ecosystem. We’re building a system that not only generates content but actually understands and retains the context because every campaign is, at its core, a story. 

Our Gen Studio, where users can create, personalise, and publish 3D assets, is designed to preserve brand consistency, ensuring that every creative output aligns with the brand’s identity and ongoing narrative. Unlike most generative tools that rely heavily on prompts and can produce unpredictable results, we’re building Gen Studio to be context-aware and reusable. 

With this, creators can add generative layers to existing brand assets like mascots, creatives, or logos, without starting from scratch every time. The studio runs on a node-based interface, which allows context to flow across nodes. 

Inc42: Flam Labs, as you said, is the creative nerve centre of your platform. Please tell us how tools like Sparks and Storyboard AI help reduce the creative friction for brands, and what early adoption trends do you see?

Amit Gaiki: Flam Labs is where we reimagine how mixed reality content is built. The goal is simple: make MR creation as seamless and efficient as possible for brands and creators.

Tools like Sparks and Storyboard AI play a big role in this. Sparks functions as an interactive 3D canvas, giving creators full control over their environment. Unlike most AI tools where visual editing is limited, Sparks is fully modular. You can generate and modify assets, adjust objects, shapes, scenes, videos, images, and even audio. It gives creators the freedom to mix, match, and build without constraints.

Storyboard AI, on the other hand, brings structure to this creative liberty. It takes all those individual assets and organises them into immersive narratives that match with campaign goals and brand identity. It weaves a set of creatives into a worthy brand story, making it much easier to plan, execute, and scale MR campaigns while keeping brand context intact.

We see strong early adoption from both creators and brands who are excited by the creative flexibility and speed these tools offer. 

Inc42: Convincing traditional brands to invest in emerging tech isn’t easy. How do you build confidence and show them the ROI from MR campaigns?

Amit Gaiki: Brands that collaborate with us do not only come with the intention to experiment with new technology, they expect us to become a bridge that could create a meaningful conversation between them and their audiences. This is what we try to work on. We want MR to become a tool with which brands can achieve measurable engagement rather than just novelty. 

We track and share detailed performance metrics such as engagement rates, scan volumes, reach, dwell time, and CTA clicks with brands. These bottom-of-the-funnel insights give them a clear picture of how audiences are interacting with their campaigns, how long they’re staying engaged, and how those interactions are translating into actions.

The data consistently shows that MR improves storytelling and deepens brand-audience connections, especially among younger, tech-savvy consumers. That combination of creative engagement and tangible results helps brands see MR not as an experiment, but as a powerful, scalable marketing channel that delivers long-term value.

Inc42: Can you share examples of brands using Flam beyond marketing?

Amit Gaiki: Flam’s use cases go well beyond marketing. In fact, there are over a hundred applications across industries. For example, we partnered with India Today to create an AI Host on a standee at one of their events. It offered attendees an interactive, mixed reality experience that mixed physical presence with digital intelligence.

Brands are also using Flam for interactive packaging, which makes everyday products into immersive touchpoints that deepen customer engagement. These examples show how mixed reality can extend across the entire brand experience, not just the marketing funnel.

This shows that mixed reality isn’t only limited to marketing, it can extend across the entire brand experience and its potential goes much further. We see MR evolving into a mainstream content format, much like what video is today. 

Imagine watching a movie trailer or a product demo not just on a screen, but within an interactive, immersive environment. That’s where content creation is headed, and Flam is helping brands get there first.

Inc42: Which Flam features do clients value the most?

Amit Gaiki: Our customers consistently rely on features like immersive experience, Fandom AI, and Spatial 3D Experiences. These tools allow brands to create content that are both visually engaging and interactive.

Our SaaS-based subscription model with campaign-specific licensing makes scaling MR experiences simpler. With Flam, brands can run multiple campaigns efficiently, maintain consistent engagement, and ensure every initiative reaches its full potential. 

Inc42: With your recent fundraise, where are you focusing your growth? Are you planning to raise another round soon?

Amit Gaiki: Technology remains our biggest edge, so staying ahead of the curve is our top priority. Building and using AI sits at the heart of this strategy and powers everything from content creation to immersive experiences.

At the same time, we’re investing in a strong creator ecosystem and onboarding brands and agencies, making sure that our platform delivers real value on the business side. AI is central here too, shaping the ecosystem and enabling creators to scale their work efficiently. As we grow on these fronts, partnerships will naturally follow, but for now, the focus is on tech and building the ecosystem that makes it all possible. 

Inc42: Five years from now, what will it take for mixed reality to become a mainstream media format in India, and how does Flam see its role there?

Amit Gaiki: We’ve made MR accessible to Indian consumers through mobile interfaces, putting it in the hands of nearly a billion users. For MR to become mainstream, the key will be a massive expansion of content and more brands and creators coming forward to publish experiences that people want to engage with.

At Flam, we’re working with some of India’s top brands to bring their marketing content into mixed reality. As this grows, the technology will naturally trickle down into consumer use cases, creating everyday MR interactions. 

Our goal is to be at the forefront of that ecosystem, providing the tools, platform, and experiences that make MR a regular part of how people consume content.