VSCO acquires mobile app Trash to expand into AI-powered video editing – ProWellTech

VSCO, the popular photo and video editing app, announced today that it has acquired an AI-powered video editing app rubbishas the company continues to penetrate the video market. As part of the contract, Trash’s technology will be integrated into the VSCO app in the coming months to make it easier for users to creatively edit their videos.

Co-founded by Hannah Donovan and Genevieve Patterson, Trash cleverly uses artificial intelligence to analyze multiple video clips and identify the most interesting shots. Then your clips are automatically stitched together to create a final product. In May, Trash added a feature called Styles that allows users to choose the type of video they want to create – like a recap, narrative, music video, or something more artistic.

After Trash has created its AI-powered editing, users can further refine the footage using on-screen buttons that allow them to rearrange the order of the clips, change filters, adjust the speed, or swap the background music.

Credit: rubbish

By integrating Trash technology, VSCO offers a way to make video editing even more accessible to newbies, and to provide advanced users with tools to delve into and make further edits at will. As Joel Flory, co-founder and CEO of VSCO explains, it helps users “put something together as quickly as possible from that” point of staring at their camera roll. “

“Trash brings you to the starting point, but then you can dive in and optimize [your video] to really make it your own, ”he says.

The first feature to be launched as part of the acquisition is support for multi-clip video editing, which is expected in a few months. Over time, VSCO expects more trash technologies to be rolled out to its users. As users make their video edits, they may also be able to save their collection of tweaks as “recipes”, as VSCO currently supports for photos.

“Trash provides VSCO with a full range of personalization, machine learning, and imaging capabilities for mobile devices that we believe can support all aspects of creating VSCO now and for future investments in creativity,” says Flory.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves VSCO has taken to expand its video capabilities.

At the end of 2019, VSCO took over the video technology startup Rylo. A few months later, the company had used the investment to debut Montage, a suite of tools that allowed users to tell longer video stories using scenes that also included stacking and overlaying videos, photos, colors, and shapes to create a collage-like final product. The company also made a change to its app earlier this year to allow users to post their videos on the main VSCO feed, which previously only supported photos.

More recently, VSCO has added new video effects such as: B. Slowing down, speeding up or reversing clips and new video recording modes.

As with the other video features, Trash’s new technology integrations will only be available to subscribers.

Today, VSCO’s subscription costs $ 19.99 per year and gives users access to the app’s video editing features. Currently, more than 2 million of the 100 million registered VSCO users are paid subscribers. As a result of the cost-cutting measures and layoffs of VSCO announced at the beginning of this year, the company has now set EBITDA positive in the second half of 2020. The company is on its way to profitability and additional video features like that of Trash will help.

Credit: rubbish

VSCO’s newer focus on video is not just about supporting VSCO’s business model, it’s also about positioning the company for the future. While the app grew in popularity in the Instagram era, today’s younger users are more likely to post videos on TikTok instead. According to Apple, TikTok was the second most downloaded free app of the year – ahead of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

While VSCO doesn’t necessarily think of itself as just a TikTok video prep tool, it needs to accommodate this growing market. Similar to TikTok, VSCO’s user base is comprised of a younger Generation Z demographic. For example, 75% of VSCO’s user base are under the age of 25, and 55% of subscribers are also under 25. Together, VSCO’s user base creates more than 8 million photos and videos per day, according to VSCO.

Due to the acquisition, Trash’s standalone app will be shut down on December 18th.

Donovan will join VSCO as Director of Product and Patterson as Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning. Other members of the trash team including Karina Bernacki, Chihyu Chang and Drew Olbrich will join as Chief of Staff, Engineering Manager and Sr. Software Engineer for iOS.

“We both believe in the power of creativity to have a healthy and positive impact on people’s lives,” Donovan said in Trash’s announcement. “Additionally, we have a similar audience of Gen Z casual creators, and we are focused on giving people opportunities to express themselves and share their version of the world while feeling seen, safe, and supported,” she said.

Trash had raised a total of $ 3.3 million – a combination of venture capital and $ 500,000 in grants – from BBG, Betaworks, Precursor, and Dream Machine, and the National Science Foundation. (Multiple ProWellTech connections here: BBG is backed by our owner Verizon Media, while Dream Machine is the fund created by former ProWellTech editor Alexia Bonatsos.)

“Han and Gen and the Trash team have always focused on the needs of the creators first. I hope that the partnership between VSCO and Trash turns us all into developers and turns the gigabytes of latent videos on our phones from junk into treasure, ”Bonatsos said in a statement on the deal.

Flory declined to speak to the deal price but described the acquisition as a “win-win for the Trash team and for VSCO”.