Fundraising Fox

Iliad

YC W23

Pittsburgh, US · Founded 2022 · 1 employees · 3 known investors

Iliad develops Aqueduct, a node-based procedural material engine with integrated AI capabilities for creating and editing custom textures and physically-based rendering (PBR) materials. The tools serve game developers, 3D artists, and creative professionals working with digital content creation.

Also known as Aqueduct

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W23)

Iliad was founded in 2022 by Matthew Turnshek.

MTMatthew Turnshek
Matthew TurnshekinFounderMatthew Turnshek founded and leads Iliad.

Investors · 3

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Iliad develops tools for creating procedural material graphs and textures for 3D content. Its main product, Aqueduct, is a node-based procedural material engine offered in open early access, which produces fully editable procedural material graphs.

Alongside Aqueduct, Iliad offers a set of diffusion-based tools: Texture Canvas, for creating custom seamlessly tileable textures; Material Generator, which produces PBR (physically based rendering) material maps from a texture; and Reference to Texture, which converts a supplied reference image into a seamless texture. The site also hosts a texture canvas gallery showing example outputs such as stone brick walls, wood grains, foliage, fabrics and metals, and a shared library.

Business model

Iliad provides its tools through a web application with user accounts and a published pricing page, indicating paid access tiers.

Traction

Aqueduct is available in open early access.

Full profile — technology, go-to-market

Technology

Iliad combines node-based procedural material graph generation with diffusion-model-driven texture tools. Aqueduct produces material graphs that remain fully editable, while the diffusion tools generate seamlessly tileable textures and derive PBR material maps from a texture or a reference image.

Go-to-market

Iliad distributes its tools directly through its website, where users log in to access Aqueduct and the diffusion tools, and maintains a Discord community channel.

Users creating textures and PBR materials for 3D content.

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Competitors · 5

by search overlap
Virtuall30 shared keywordsVirtuall is a creative AI operating system for enterprise production, providing a control layer that orchestrates multiple AI models, agents and workflows for generating image, video, 3D and audio content while enforcing brand governance, cost control and asset traceability. It serves studios and enterprise creative, brand and design teams across industries such as marketing, gaming, architecture and product design.
Scenario27 shared keywordsScenario is a creative AI platform that lets teams train custom models on their own art and brand style, then access 600+ image, video, 3D, and audio models to generate on-brand assets. It serves creative teams across industries such as gaming and consumer brands, offering a workspace for creatives, an API for developers, and workflow/agent tools for production at scale.
OpenArt24 shared keywordsOpenArt is an all-in-one AI creation platform for generating and editing images, videos, voice, music, characters, and 3D worlds within a single canvas. It serves solo creators and brand teams making content such as short films, music videos, UGC and product ads, and social posts, offering multiple AI models and studio-style editing controls.
A Cloud Guru24 shared keywordsA Cloud Guru is an online learning platform focused on cloud computing skills, offering certification courses, hands-on labs, practice exams, and live cloud sandboxes for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Linux. It serves individual engineers and enterprise teams building cloud fluency, and was acquired by and integrated into Pluralsight in 2021.
Itch23 shared keywordsitch.io is an online platform for finding, sharing, buying, and selling indie games, hosting storefronts, game jams, and creator tools like the butler upload utility. It serves independent game developers and players, with features such as configurable platform fees and creator events.

Companies competing with Iliad for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

In the news

Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Iliad do?
Iliad builds Aqueduct, a node-based procedural material engine, plus AI texture and PBR material generation tools.
Who founded Iliad?
Iliad was founded by Matthew Turnshek in 2022.
Who are Iliad's investors?
Iliad's investors include Amino Capital, DG Daiwa Ventures, Y Combinator.
Where is Iliad headquartered?
Iliad is headquartered in Pittsburgh, US.