Vochi, a startup operating out of Belarus that’s created a “computer vision”-based video editing and effects app for mobile phones, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding.
Leading the round is Ukraine-based Genesis Investments (backer of BetterMe and Jiji). It follows pre-seed funding in April 2019 from Bulba Ventures, where Vochi founder and CEO Ilya Lesun previously worked as a product analyst.
Recognising that video content is booming, especially on short video platforms like TikTok, Lesun sort to build a mobile video app that would help creators stand out, while making creative video editing simple.
With the help of a computer vision-based video segmentation algorithm, the app lets you apply effects on single objects in your videos, opening up a lot of opportunities to make something unique. You can mix different styles and play with different scenarios, all in real-time, which helps visualize how the finished video will look, before downloading a high quality copy to begin sharing.
“As mobile content production and consumption increase, there’s also an increasing demand for content creation tools,” Lesun tells TechCrunch. “This is where we can bring value to content makers — be it professionals and amateurs — by delivering a video editing platform with as many tools and effects as possible. We see it as a content editing studio in a user’s pocket”.
To that end, its the use of computer vision and its ability to apply effects, stickers, and filters to any objects in a video, that Lesun says differentiates the Vochi app from competitors. “The app uses object segmentation algorithms that allow users to edit single objects in the video,” the founder explains. “[This lets users] to apply high-quality effects on single objects in 1080p videos in real-time”.
Typical users are cited as a “content creators”: people that share a lot of content on social media and “don’t like to keep their videos stored in the phone gallery”.
Adds Vochi: “It can be an influencer or blogger, who really wants the content to stand out and be really engaging for the audience. It can also be a creative person, who likes to create fun videos and share those with friends. And, of course, it’s basically every smartphone user”.