Dalet Labs, a New York startup founded by former Runway researcher Omer Bar-Tal, launched Scene on Wednesday, an invite-only iOS shopping app backed by a $7 million pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Instead of typing a query, users scroll a feed of AI-generated images, and each image links to real products they can buy.
The wager is that shoppers want to wander, not hunt.
How Scene works
The feed is made up of photoreal, AI-generated "scenes," often showing people wearing or using products, Business Insider reported. The images shift as users react to them. Each one contains actual items from brands in fashion, home decor, sports and other categories. According to Dalet Labs' site, users can tap a product, collect items from several brands in one basket and check out without leaving the app.
The company calls this "Generative Commerce," which its site describes as a discovery-first interface where every interaction shapes what gets generated next. Bar-Tal put it more plainly in an Oct. 28 post on X. "We raised a $7M pre-seed to make shopping fun again," he wrote, likening the app to "walking into a mall built around your taste."
Access, brands and revenue
According to Business Insider, Scene is available on the US App Store, but only by invitation; the company's site lets people request early access. There is no Android version, and Dalet Labs has not said when one might arrive.
The company told Business Insider it launched with "hundreds of brands and retailers," though it did not name them, and said more partnerships are in progress. Revenue comes from affiliate marketing: the startup works with affiliate networks and earns a commission on in-app transactions. That model is at an early stage.
To find users, Dalet Labs plans to rely on influencers and social media, Business Insider reported, along with a holiday coupon campaign offering discounts to newcomers. Who would pay for those discounts was not disclosed.
The case for discovery
Bar-Tal has been pointed about where he thinks the industry is heading. Agentic commerce, in which AI software shops on a person's behalf, "misses the point in shopping," he told Business Insider, which he described as "essentially a delightful experience." He added that "AI is amazing when you know what you want, but it's really important to actually have an ability to discover and to see things."
The company's own materials echo that view. Its page says Generative Commerce is meant to help people "form intent," not merely fulfill it, folding inspiration, exploration and purchase "into one continuous visual experience."
Dalet Labs has also published a research post, "Collaborative Generation with Non-Parametric Sampling," which describes how user behavior steers what the system produces next. It refers to schema construction as a way to constrain diffusion outputs (the image-generation process) and reduce hallucinations, the AI term for fabricated or inaccurate results.
The founder and the backers
Bar-Tal lists past work at Runway, Pika Labs, Google Research and the Weizmann Institute, and co-authored Text2LIVE, presented at ECCV 2022. He said on X on Nov. 6, 2025, that he had left Runway to start a new company. Business Insider reported that the round closed in late 2025.
Lisa Han, a Lightspeed partner, told the outlet that Bar-Tal brings "video AI research expertise" and a "deep understanding of what consumers want." SV Angel also participated. In his Oct. 28 post, Bar-Tal named a long roster of angels: Hersh Desai, Fred Ehrsam, Guillermo Rauch, Adam D'Angelo, Scott Belsky, Mikey Shulman, Eric Reiner and "sserenazz."
Dealroom estimates the company has between 2 and 10 employees, a third-party figure Dalet Labs has not confirmed. Business Insider reported the money will go toward hiring engineers and researchers.
Crowded territory
Scene enters a busy field. Business Insider pointed to TikTok Shop's US expansion and Pinterest's visual search as discovery rivals. A Dealroom note also named Amazon, and flagged virtual try-on companies Doji and Alta, along with the risk that consumers simply won't adopt a new habit.
Those competitors have money. TechCrunch reported in May 2025 that Doji raised a $14 million seed round led by Thrive Capital. Alta has reportedly raised a seed round and a later Series A, and Daydream, a New York fashion discovery app, has introduced a "Powered by Daydream" program. Some of the dates attached to those latter developments sit awkwardly against the rest of this timeline, so they are not specified here.
What sets Scene apart is that it generates the imagery itself rather than depending on user photos or try-on avatars. Whether that is enough to bring people back is the open question.
What Lightspeed is watching
In an Oct. 28 post, Lightspeed quoted Bar-Tal on the signal the feed gathers. "Each reaction is tiny. But together they communicate something incredibly rich: where your curiosity is going."
He was equally direct with Business Insider about the product's purpose. "You come to Scene to shop, not be entertained."
