AI is increasingly transforming how people shop, and startups like Onton are leading the charge. The company, formerly known as Deft, has raised $7.5 million in a new funding round led by Footwork, with participation from Liquid 2, Parable Ventures, and 43, bringing its total funding to around $10 million.

Onton, an AI-powered furniture shopping platform, has seen rapid growth — its user base has expanded from 50,000 to over 2 million monthly active users, with millions of searches and image generations conducted on the platform.

The startup co-founded by Zach Hudson and Alex Gunnarson uses a neuro-symbolic architecture that helps avoid common AI pitfalls like hallucinations while delivering logical and actionable search results. For example, Onton’s AI can determine whether furniture is pet-friendly based on materials like polyester and learn from real-world patterns across millions of searches.

To improve the shopping experience, Onton allows users to upload images or describe design goals, enabling the platform to find furniture that matches their vision. An infinite canvas feature also lets users combine existing images with new product ideas for inspiration. According to Hudson, these features have improved conversion rates by 3–5x compared to traditional e-commerce platforms.

With the new funding, Onton plans to expand into categories like apparel and eventually consumer electronics. The company has grown from three employees in 2023 to ten and aims to increase its team to fifteen, hiring engineers and researchers to support the expansion.