Video streaming platform Vimeo agreed yesterday to acquire Israel-based video-editing app developer Magisto, for an amount reported by Globes to be about $200m.
Founded in 2009, Magisto has built a video editing platform that relies on artificial intelligence to generate short films by automatically selecting clips from a user’s photos and videos. Users choose the editing style for the video and can enhance it by selecting music and visual effects.
The platform, which has some 90 million users, is available in the form of both a mobile app and an online desktop tool, and it also offers a template library where individuals and enterprise clients can customise pre-prepared videos.
Vimeo and Magisto will jointly work on adding short-form video creation capabilities to the Vimeo platform, while Magisto’s users will gain access to Vimeo’s suite of tools. Magisto has raised $35m in equity funding altogether, including $2m from internet company Mail.ru in 2014..
The company received $13m in series C funding from Qualcomm Ventures and SanDisk Ventures, respective corporate venturing subsidiaries of mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and storage technology producer SanDisk, as well as Magma Venture Partners and Horizons Ventures, in 2013.
Horizons Ventures and Magma Venture Partners had previously contributed to Magisto’s $5.5m series B round in 2011.
The company’s backers include Western Digital Capital, the investment arm of storage technology company Western Digital, and according to Globes, consumer electronics provider Samsung and equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, though it is unclear when they invested.
