{
  "id": 4671574,
  "title": "Clipto uses AI to search terabytes of video and is now valued at $250M",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/clipto-uses-ai-to-search-terabytes-of-video-and-is-now-valued-at-250m",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-31T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCrunch",
    "slug": "techcrunch",
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/three-year-old-ai-media-search-startup-clipto-hits-a-250m-valuation/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Generative AI has simplified content creation but also made it increasingly challenging to manage the vast amounts of videos, recordings, and documents. Companies like Adobe, Apple, and Google, along with several startups, are leveraging AI to make these files searchable. However, it remains uncertain whether this will result in a new software category or become a standard feature of existing products. Clipto, a San Francisco-based startup with teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, believes there is a market for a standalone product. The company recently raised $15 million in an all-equity round at a $250 million post-money valuation. Investors include HSG (formerly Sequoia China), GL Ventures, EnvisionX Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Hans Tung, Lu Zhang, and 522 Ventures.\n\nClipto indexes various media files, such as videos, audio, images, meetings, and more, on users' computers. Instead of scrolling through folders to locate the desired content, users can simply describe what they're searching for or ask AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to find it for them. The company's founder, Henry Kang, has been working on related problems for nearly two decades. In 2006, while pursuing a PhD at Carnegie Mellon University, Kang developed robots capable of recording their surroundings, identifying objects, and remembering where to find them. He later applied this concept to his first startup, which utilized AI to assist users in tracking clothes in their closets and suggesting outfits. His second company, ZenVideo, focused on simplifying video creation and was acquired by Tencent in 2020.\n\nKang founded Clipto in 2023, harnessing the insights gained from his previous ventures. The company's core idea emerged from the observation that, in the AI era, the opposite of a content shortage exists: there is an abundance of video footage on users' computers that remains unused. While early versions of Clipto were geared towards video creators managing scattered footage, the user base has diversified to include lawyers, doctors, researchers, marketers, HR professionals, professors, and students. Over 30 million people have utilized Clipto since its launch, with hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers. Although Kang did not provide a precise subscriber count or average revenue per customer, he mentioned that a significant portion of customers continue their subscriptions for more than two years.\n\nThe company has achieved $15 million in annual recurring revenue at the start of 2026 and remains profitable on a net-income basis. Clipto currently employs about 20 people across the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Two weeks ago, Clipto introduced support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard enabling AI applications to connect with external sources of information. Notably, the user's active request and authorization are required for AI applications to access the indexed files. The processing occurs locally on the user's device without relying on cloud services.\n\nIn a market dominated by larger companies that control most data and software, Clipto distinguishes itself by offering cross-platform search capabilities for videos, audio, images, and documents. While Adobe, Apple, and Google provide AI-powered search within their respective services, Clipto's product searches across multiple file types. Additionally, Clipto allows users to grant selected information access to AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. The company believes that integrating these features within a single product will enable it to compete effectively with larger platforms. The recently acquired funding will be used to develop AI models and computing infrastructure for consumer hardware deployment, as well as integrate with more AI agents.",
  "summary": "The three-year-old startup says it reached $15 million in ARR and profitability before raising its latest $15 million round.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}