Rana Hanocka Launched 3D Asset Platform Thrixel

The startup secured $3 million to automate 3D model creation for game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine.

Updated on Oct. 9, 2026 in Startups

Isometric editorial illustration of a complex geometric 3D prism floating in space, representing technical asset generation for game engines. — Startup Thrixel has secured $3 million in funding to scale its new platform for automating the creation of 3D assets for game development. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Rana Hanocka has launched Thrixel, a new platform designed to generate 3D assets with identifiable components. The startup has raised $3 million in inception funding to scale its technology.

Why it matters

The platform aims to reduce the high costs and complex technical requirements associated with traditional 3D asset production in fields like game development. It integrates directly with standard industry tools to streamline the creative pipeline.

Thrixel utilizes a combination of vision language models, agentic pipelines, generative diffusion, and optimization techniques. The platform also includes Build World, an agentic tool that employs AI coding agents to generate 3D content and its associated code.

The players

Rana Hanocka

Founder of Thrixel and researcher originating the platform at the University of Chicago.

Sierra Ventures

An investment firm specializing in early-stage technology companies that participated in the $3 million funding round.

Thrixel

A startup providing an AI-driven 3D generation platform with integrated tools for Unity and Unreal Engine.

The details

Thrixel uses generative diffusion — a process where a model learns to construct data from noise — to create 3D assets with specific, identifiable components. The Build World tool functions by deploying an AI coding agent that simultaneously generates visual geometry and writes the underlying code required to integrate the object into game engines. Research for the platform originated at the University of Chicago.

October 8, 2026: Thrixel launched its 3D generation platform.

The Tech Race

Thrixel is entering a competitive field of generative AI tools that seek to replace the manual labor required by industry-standard game engines. It marks an attempt to move beyond simple model generation by incorporating agentic coding to automate the integration process.

Game developers and 3D artists will eventually be able to use Thrixel to automate asset generation and code integration, potentially shortening production cycles. Availability for individual users remains unannounced following the company's inception funding.

The takeaway

Thrixel represents an effort to codify the 3D production pipeline using agentic AI. Interested observers should monitor the company's progress on integrating its Build World tool into professional game development workflows.