Magisto is a web application that provides a free automatic video editing service for amateurs. According to the website, Magisto aims to solve the problem of video editing being too complicated and time-consuming by letting users edit their videos in a click. [1]
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The Israel-based company has built its service on patent-pending image analysis technology that analyzes unedited videos and identifies the most interesting parts. The system recognizes faces, animals, landscapes, action sequences, movements and other interesting content within the video, as well as analyzes speech and audio. These scenes are then edited together, along with music and effects, into share-worthy clips. [2] [3]
Automatic video editing products have emerged over the past decade in order to make video editing accessible to a broader consumer market. Automatic video editing technology does the work for the user, eliminating the need for a deeper understanding or knowledge of how to use complicated video editing software. Muvee Technologies introduced autoProducer, the first PC-based automatic video editing platform, in 2001. Other solutions, including Sony’s MovieShaker and Roxio Cinematic, followed in 2002. [4]. 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. [5]
Magisto was founded in 2009 as SightEra (LTD) by Dr. Oren Boiman (CEO) and Dr. Alex Rav-Acha (CTO) with the mission of making it easy for anyone to edit videos, regardless of video editing expertise. The inspiration for Magisto came when CEO Boiman’s first daughter was born in 2005. Boiman, like many others, was frustrated with the fact that had to spend many hours editing together videos of his daughter and he saw the need for an easier way to capture and share video memories without the time consuming process of video editing. [6]
In September 2011, at the same time as the public launch of their automatic video editing web application, Magisto announced a $5.5 million Series B funding round led by Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures. Li Ka-Shing is known for making early-stage investments in companies like Facebook, Spotify, SecondMarket and Siri. [9] [10] Other investors include Magma Venture Partners.
Magisto has a freemium business model. Users can create their video clips for free. However, they plan to offer premium features like HD ([High-definition video]), unbranded videos and the ability to download videos in the future. [11]
Magisto won first place at Technonomy3, an annual Internet Technology start-up competition in Israel. Judges of the competition included Jeff Pulver, TechCrunch editor Mike Butcher, investor Yaron Samid, Bessemer Venture Partners Israel partner Adam Fisher and Brad McCarty of The Next Web. [12]