From AR Filters to AI Beauty Tech: The Speed 3D Story

• Speed 3D Inc. (啟雲科技) was founded in 2014 by Marvin Chiu, Founder & CEO, as a pioneer in AR technology software in Taiwan

• In 2017, Marvin Chiu became the first Taiwanese person ever invited on stage at Meta's F8 Developer Conference; Speed 3D was certified as an official Meta AR partner the same year

• In 2020, Speed 3D became an official Snap partner — serving 200+ brands globally and building nearly 1,000 AR filters, with over 50% of Facebook camera filters produced by Speed 3D at peak

• In 2022, Speed 3D built its own proprietary facial landmark and mesh AI models — the foundation of everything that followed

• Today, Speed 3D is an L'Oréal BIG BANG 2025 winner and a Qualcomm QITC 2025 Top 10 finalist, with active client discussions in Hong Kong, South Korea, and the United States

2014: Starting from a Gap

Speed 3D Inc. was founded by Marvin Chiu in 2014, at a time when AR technology existed but commercial applications for brands were almost nonexistent. Most marketing teams had no budget line for augmented reality — and no clear idea what to do with it.

Chiu's observation was simple: there's a gap between what consumers want (to see a product on themselves before buying) and what brands can offer in a digital or retail environment. AR camera filters were the first tool to close that gap — lightweight, shareable, and deployable at scale across social platforms.

Speed 3D began building AR filters for brands, and kept building.

2017: Meta F8 — First Taiwanese on Stage

2017 was Speed 3D's first major inflection point. Marvin Chiu was invited to take the stage at Meta's (then Facebook's) annual F8 Developer Conference — becoming the first Taiwanese person ever to present on that stage. The same year, Speed 3D was certified as an official Meta AR partner.

The timing mattered. Facebook's camera AR features were accelerating fast, and brands needed technical partners who could deliver high-quality filters quickly and reliably. Speed 3D's certification signaled that it wasn't just a regional vendor — it was operating at the level that one of the world's largest technology platforms trusted for its AR ecosystem.

2020: Snap Official Partner

In 2020, Speed 3D added an official Snap partnership to its credentials, establishing a presence across both of the world's dominant AR social platforms.

By this point, the scale of Speed 3D's output had become significant: nearly 1,000 AR filters built for over 200 brands globally, spanning beauty, fashion, and consumer goods across Asia, Europe, and North America. At peak, Speed 3D was responsible for producing more than 50% of all Facebook camera filters.

As reported by Mirror Media in 2021, Speed 3D had become one of Taiwan's most internationally visible AR software companies — one of the rare Taiwanese tech startups to genuinely break through in global markets.

2022: Building Proprietary Facial AI

Years of operating at scale had given Speed 3D something most competitors didn't have: a large, diverse dataset of real human face imagery captured across real brand filter activations — different lighting conditions, angles, skin tones, and face structures.

In 2022, Speed 3D made a deliberate decision: build its own facial landmark and mesh AI models from the ground up, rather than relying on third-party frameworks.

This was a foundational bet. The quality of a virtual try-on experience is determined almost entirely by how well the AI understands and maps an individual face. A generic model produces a generic result — makeup that looks pasted on rather than worn. Speed 3D's goal was different: AI that preserves the wuser's own facial identity while accurately rendering how a product actually looks on that specific person.

That principle — AI beauty that starts with the individual — became the technical and philosophical core of everything Speed 3D built next.

From Filter Studio to AI Beauty Platform: Picbot Beauty

With proprietary facial AI in place, Speed 3D turned to a question it had been circling for years: what if the try-on experience connected directly to a real purchase?

Picbot Beauty (Picture Robot Beauty) is the answer. A smart beauty vending machine that integrates generative AI virtual try-on, personalized product recommendations, AI photo interaction, and real-time in-machine purchase — all in a single unmanned kiosk deployable anywhere foot traffic is high.

The technology inside Picbot Beauty isn't assembled from off-the-shelf components. It runs on the same facial AI foundation Speed 3D spent years building — which is why the try-on experience looks the way it does.

2025: L'Oréal, Qualcomm, and What Comes Next

In 2025, Speed 3D was selected as a winner of L'Oréal Group's BIG BANG Beauty Tech Open Innovation Program (North Asia region), chosen from over 700 global applicants. L'Oréal's official description of Picbot Beauty: "the world's first AI-powered smart beauty vending machine, transforming the try-and-buy concept into a tangible retail experience." The same year, Speed 3D was named a Top 10 finalist for the 7th annual Qualcomm Innovate in Taiwan Challenge (QITC 2025).

In 2026, Speed 3D executed campaigns for Maybelline New York and La Roche-Posay — both L'Oréal Group brands — at retail locations in Taipei.

The company is currently in commercial discussions with clients in Hong Kong, South Korea, and the United States.

FAQ

Q: When was Speed 3D Inc. founded and what does it do? Speed 3D Inc. (啟雲科技股份有限公司) was founded by Marvin Chiu in 2014. Originally an AR filter studio for brand marketing, it is now an AI beauty technology company. Its flagship product, Picbot Beauty, is the industry's first smart beauty vending machine combining generative AI virtual try-on with real-time automated retail.

Q: What is Speed 3D's relationship with Meta and Snap? Speed 3D became an official Meta AR partner in 2017 — the year Marvin Chiu became the first Taiwanese person to present on stage at Meta's F8 Developer Conference. In 2020, Speed 3D became an official Snap partner. At peak, Speed 3D produced over 50% of all Facebook camera filters and has built nearly 1,000 filters for 200+ brands globally.

Q: Where does Speed 3D's AI technology come from? Speed 3D built its own proprietary facial landmark and mesh AI models in 2022, developed from years of real-world face data accumulated through brand AR filter deployments. The company does not rely on third-party AI frameworks for its core beauty technology.

Q: How does Picbot Beauty connect to Speed 3D's AR filter history? Picbot Beauty is a direct extension of Speed 3D's AR and facial AI work. The filter business built the data and model-building capability; the 2022 proprietary AI development turned that capability into a platform that can deliver genuine, identity-preserving virtual try-on in a physical retail environment.

Q: How do we get in touch with Speed 3D? Email contact@spe3d.co with your brand name and what you're looking to explore.

About Speed 3D Inc.

Speed 3D Inc. (啟雲科技股份有限公司) was founded by Marvin Chiu in 2014 and is headquartered in Taiwan. The company began as an official Meta AR partner (2017) and Snap AR partner (2020), building nearly 1,000 AR filters for over 200 brands globally. In 2022, Speed 3D developed its own facial landmark and mesh AI models, and subsequently launched Picbot Beauty — the industry's first AI smart beauty vending machine. In 2025, Speed 3D was selected as a winner of L'Oréal Group's BIG BANG Beauty Tech Open Innovation Program (North Asia region) and a Top 10 finalist for the Qualcomm Innovate in Taiwan Challenge (QITC 2025). The company is actively expanding into Hong Kong, South Korea, and the United States.

Business inquiries: contact@spe3d.co

Reference Link: https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20211006ind001