Magisto is a technology company founded in 2009 to provide

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI) technology for

video editing Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatical ...

. It produces an online video editor of the same name (both as a

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

and a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

) for automated

and production aimed at consumers and businesses. The company was acquired by

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

in 2019 for an estimated $200 million USD.

Technology

Magisto was founded by Dr. Oren Boiman, a computer scientist that graduated from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

followed by graduate work in

computer vision Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...

at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

. Boiman developed a number of patent-pending

image analysis Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading bar coded tags or as sophi ...

technologies that analyze unedited videos to identify the most interesting parts. The system recognizes faces, animals, landscapes, action sequences, movements and other important content within the video, as well as analyzing speech and audio. These scenes are then edited together, along with music and effects.

Automatic video editing

Automated video editing products have emerged to make video editing easier for a broader consumer market.

Muvee Technologies muvee Technologies is the Singapore-based inventor of the world's first automatic video editing software for Windows. In 2001, muvee launched the award-winning autoProducer for PCs and in 2005 became the first to offer mobile video editing softw ...

introduced autoProducer, the first PC-based automatic video editing platform, in 2001. Other solutions, including Sony's MovieShaker and Roxio Cinematic, followed in 2002. As smartphones and consumer video recording devices become more prevalent the need for an easier video solution has led to a renewed interest in automatic video editing.

Music

The Magisto app contains a library of music. The music, largely by independent artists, is sorted by mood and is licensed for in-app use.

History

Magisto was founded in 2009 as SightEra (LTD) by Dr. Oren Boiman (CEO) and Dr. Alex Rav-Acha (CTO). Boiman, frustrated with the amount of time it took editing together videos of his daughter, wanted an easier to use application to capture and share videos. Magisto was launched publicly on September 20, 2011, as a

video editing software Video editing software, or a video editor is software used performing the post-production video editing of digital video sequences on a non-linear editing system. It has replaced traditional flatbed celluloid film editing tools and analog video ta ...

through which users could upload unedited video footage, choose a title and soundtrack and have their video edited for them automatically. On the following day Magisto was added to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Create's collection of video production applications. The Magisto iPhone app was launched publicly at the 2012

International Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typ ...

(CES) in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. At CES, the company was also awarded the 2012 CES Mobile App Showdown. On August 28, 2012, Magisto launched the

Android app Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of de ...

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

. On September 13, 2012, Magisto launched a

Google Chrome App A Google Chrome App, or commonly just Chrome App, was a certain type of (non-standardized) web application that ran on the Google Chrome web browser. Chrome apps can be obtained from the Chrome Web Store where apps, extensions, and themes can be ...

and announced

Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In add ...

integration. On March 7, 2013, Magisto claimed 5 million users. Google listed Magisto as an "Editors’ Choice" on its list of "Best Apps of 2013". In September 2013, the company claimed that 10 million users had downloaded the App. In February 2014, Magisto claimed that they had 20 million users, with 2 million new users per month. The company also confirmed investment from a Russian internet company,

Mail.Ru Group VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Runet, Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. VK operates an e-m ...

. In September 2014 Magisto rolled out a new feature called, ‘Instagram Ready’ which allows users to upload 15 second clips that are automatically formatted for

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. In the same month Magisto also launched a new feature for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android users, called ‘Surprise Me’ which creates video from still photographs on users’ smartphones. In October 2014, Magisto was placed 9th on the 2014 Deloitte Israel Technology Fast 50 list and named as a finalist in the Red Herring's Top 100 Europe award. In January 2015, Magisto participated in a statistical analysis on the habits of smartphone users in conjunction with

Gigaom Gigaom is a technology focused analyst firm and media company. The company evolved from a blog which offered news, analysis, and opinions on startup companies, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It was started by Om Malik ...

. In July 2015, Magisto released an editing theme dedicated to musician

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

. In April 2019, the company was acquired by

, the IAC-owned platform for hosting, sharing and monetizing streamed video, for an estimated .

Funding rounds

In 2010, the company received more than $5.5 million in

Series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

and B

venture round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among ...

funding from Magma Venture Partners and

Horizons Ventures Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

. In September 2011, at the same time as the public launch of their web application, Magisto announced a $5.5 million Series B funding round led by

Li Ka-shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

’s Horizons Ventures. Li Ka-Shing is known for making early-stage investments in companies like

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

SecondMarket Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) provides a secondary market trading venue for issuers, brokers, shareholders, and prospective investors of private company stock. Since inception, NPM has facilitated more than $40 billion in transactional volume and ha ...

and

Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer qu ...

. In 2014, the company received $2 million in Venture Funding from Magma Venture Partners,

Qualcomm Ventures Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with 140+ active portfolio companies. Investing in startups targeting the wireless ecosystem, the group focuse ...

and the Mail.Ru Group.

Business model

Magisto has a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

business model: Users can create basic video clips for free. In addition, advanced business, professional and personal service tiers are available via various subscription plans, unlocking more features; such as longer videos, HD, premium themes, customization and control features.

Awards

* Magisto won first place at Technonomy3, an annual Internet Technology start-up competition in Israel. Judges of the competition included

Jeff Pulver Jeff Pulver is an American Internet entrepreneur and futurist known for his work as an innovator in the field of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Pulver's early work in VoIP with his company Free World Dialup led to a significant regulatory ...

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...

editor Mike Butcher, investor Yaron Samid, Bessemer Venture Partners Israel partner Adam Fisher and Brad McCarty of The Next Web. * Magisto won first place at CES 2012 Mobile app competition, during the launch of Magisto iOS mobile app. * Magisto was awarded twice the Google Play Editor's Choice and was part of iPhone App Store Best App awards for 2013 and 2014, and Wired Essential iPad Apps. * Magisto was declared by Deloitte as the 7-th fastest growing companies in EMEA in 2016.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.magisto.com Vimeo Film and video technology Video processing Software architecture Magisto Web development Software companies of the United States