Guest author: Pablo Sierra Saldarriaga, Novobrief
Beyond42 is a startup from Belgrade, Serbia that is using AI and 3D to turn iconic buildings into Digital Twins.
After a series of experiments abroad, Beyond42 is planning to establish Madrid as its new base of operations, and the founder has a dream: create an immersive, digital representation of Spain’s National Library.
Founded in 2019, Beyond42 specializes in creating immersive digital replicas of real buildings. Its CEO, Dušanka Ilić, told Novobrief how she envisions the key to the company’s value proposition: “More than a 3D representation, we work with analytics and interaction tools, so that users can not only tour a digital building, but also attend a class, hold a meeting, or create a small virtual store.”
Following this premise, Beyond42 aims to offer people an experience that goes far beyond searching for a famous building on Google Maps. An experience more like one would expect in the video game world.
“Our goal is to turn iconic landmarks, university campuses, and corporate headquarters into permanent digital spaces where people can study, work, visit, or hold events,” she said.
According to the founder, Beyond42 focuses on three areas: education, cultural heritage, and enterprises. She believes this is the difference between them and early digital twin companies like Matterport, which helped bring 3D scanning to the mainstream but often focus on real estate or logistics.
“We’re interested in meaningful spaces: a university, a museum, a company’s first headquarters,” she said. “We try to do justice to those buildings.”
One example is their collaboration with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, the second-largest private university in Europe. Beyond42 built digital twins of six of its campuses, designed for students and visitors to explore classrooms, attend events, or access online services.
Other projects include cultural heritage commissions in Vienna and Serbia, as well as immersive corporate spaces for companies like Generali. In total, the company claims to have clients in around 20 countries.
But how do they do it?
Beyond42 tries to gather all available documentation on the building in question. It scans the plans and scans photographs, videos, and documentation that offer insights into the building’s appearance and essence. From then on, the resulting work is a realistic representation of the “physical twin.”
“Recreating a building takes us about a month, depending on the size and complexity,” said Ilić.
Her proposal is also an exercise in imagination. She believes Beyond42 should focus on representations of historical buildings of which nothing remains but ruins. For example, a representation of the Roman Forum.
Beyond42 would not be the first or only one to attempt to represent a building just existent in people’s imagination. So their approach to working on imaginary aspects with their clients is: “If they tell me, put this thing here and make it look this way, we’ll do it.”
In 2023, the team attempted to expand into the US market, with pilot projects in New York. But the distance—logistically, financially, and culturally—proved difficult for a Serbian-based company to manage. “It was simply too far. The cost of entry was high, and we felt disconnected,” Ilić said.
Now, after testing New York, the company is moving to Spain. “Madrid offered the perfect combination of ecosystem, energy, and climate. We knew we had a product. What we needed was the right context,” she said.
“Once we started talking to local entrepreneurs and institutions, we realized Madrid was the ideal place to build the next phase of our company. They all responded to our emails. They gave us guidance. Even when we were rejected from one accelerator, we were accepted into another. That receptive attitude made a huge difference.”
Since then, the team has been in contact with Madrid-based innovation institutions such as La Nave and Puerta Innovación. “Now we’re preparing to open an office in Madrid, the first outside Serbia.”
In terms of funding and revenue, Beyond42’s founder said she aims to close the year at 1 million EUR ARR. “Sabina Orucevic Selvic is our angel investor 300K EUR late seed + pending approval for additional Katapult Accelerator Match for additional 300K EUR.”
And with that growth comes even bigger dreams. Although Beyond42 doesn’t yet have digital twins of buildings in Madrid, Ilić says she would love to recreate Spain’s National Library one day. “It would be a dream project,” she added.
For now, she says, the focus is on finding local partners and integrating into the city’s technological and cultural networks.
Disclosure: This article was originally published by Pablo Sierra Saldarriaga on Novobrief, and was re-published with permission.
