The news: Pictory, a Seattle startup that helps content creators and marketers make short-form videos, raised a $2.1 million seed round.
The tech: Pictory’s software automates much of the video creation process. It can automatically convert long-form videos (such as webinars) and text content (such as long articles) into short video clips using artificial intelligence. The idea is to provide a faster and cheaper option than hiring a video production agency, or using tools such as Adobe Premiere. Pictory has more than 5,000 customers.
The founders: Pictory co-founders Vikram Chalana, Abid Mohammed, and Vishal Chalana started the company in 2019. Vikram and Vishal Chalana previously co-founded Winshuttle, a Seattle-area data management company acquired last year.
The quote: “We saw how AI was being used for content creation (GPT-3, e.g.) and we saw how design was being democratized (Canva, e.g.) and we came up with the idea of Pictory — AI to democratize video production,” said Vikram Chalana, who is CEO of the 10-person startup.
The investors: Seattle VC firm FUSE led the seed round, which included participation from Voyager Capital. Seattle angel investors Bill Bryant, Omri Bahat, and Bharat Shyam also invested.