Sequoia’s Surge bets on video platform InVideo
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Sequoia’s Surge bets on video platform InVideo

By Narinder Kapur

  • 20 Feb 2020
Sequoia’s Surge bets on video platform InVideo
Credit: VCCircle

Video production and editing platform InVideo has raised $2.5 million (approximately Rs 17.90 crore at current exchange rates) in funding led by Surge, the accelerator programme of global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

Others that have invested in the company include angel investors Anand Chandrasekaran and Gokul Rajaram, InVideo said in a statement.

The San Francisco- and Mumbai-based startup said it will use the funds to grow its global audience, invests in its community and expands its product pipeline.

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The latest investment takes the total funding InVideo has raised so far to a little over $3.2 million, it added.

Sanket Shah, co-founder and CEO at InVideo, said the startup was aiming to democratise the access to professional video software. “We are using AI to automate the entire video-making process so even beginners can create videos,” he said.

Previously, the video editing startup had raised around $750,000 in angel funding from Haresh Chawla, Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl, Bigtree Entertainment’s Ashish Hemrajani and Times Internet’s Miten Sampat.

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InVideo, operated by Abstrakt Video Pvt. Ltd, says its editing platform suggests real-time improvements with the help of an autocorrect assistant. Some of these suggestions include font and animation choices, and colour palettes. InVideo was part of Surge’s second cohort of 20 startups from across Southeast Asia and India.

The company offers a basic free service, with premium features being sold through a subscription model. Its platform also includes features such as drag-and-drop functionality, a large picture, and video library and formatting for different services such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

InVideo claims it has a user base of more than one lakh customers across 150 countries, including companies such as AT&T, Sony Music, Reuters, CNN, and CNBC.

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Surge’s investments

InVideo is the latest Surge-accelerated startup to receive funding, whether through the Sequoia arm or other investors. Mentors on Surge include Byju Raveendran of ed-tech startup Byju’s, Deepinder Goyal of food-technology platform Zomato, Ritesh Agarwal of hotel firm OYO, Kunal Shah of Cred, Ankiti Bose of Zilingo and Ashwini Asokan of Mad Street Den.

Last month, e-sports streaming and community platform Rheo raised $2 million (around Rs 14.34 crore) in seed funding from a clutch of investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Surge, Unacademy founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini and former LinkedIn India country manager Mahesh Narayanan.

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In December, software-as-a-service startup Seekify Technologies raised $1.5 million (around Rs 10.6 crore) in seed funding from Surge and angel investors such as Avatar Venture Partners founding partner Nishant Rao, 1mg co-founder Gaurav Agarwal, and HealthKart founder Sameer Maheshwari.

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