AI-powered video solutions company, VideoVerse, has officially acquired Optikka. This development is set to further strengthen the real-time content automation platform, Magnifi.ai, operated by VideoVerse.
With a primary focus on delivering top-notch content automation services spanning sports, news, and entertainment, VideoVerse recognizes the pivotal role that graphics play in these workflows. The company has been keen on harnessing the potential of generative AI, and through the acquisition of Optikka, they are poised to leverage the expertise of two industry veterans, Charles Duncan and Nick Arciero, who have joined VideoVerse in the wake of this acquisition.
Prateek Sharma, recently appointed as the Chief Strategy Officer at VideoVerse, expressed his enthusiasm for the acquisition, stating, “We’re focused on building best-in-class content automation services across sports, news and entertainment. Obviously, graphics are an essential component to these workflows and with generative AI moving at warp speed, we’ve been looking for the right team to harness that power and we believe we’ve found that in Charles and Nick. This is the first step in evolving Magnifi from a point solution to a post-production automation platform. We’re looking forward to bringing the power of Optikka to our clients across all verticals.”
The acquisition brings on board Charles Duncan, a creative technologist, and Nick Arciero, a global creative strategist, both with extensive experience across multiple divisions of Disney. Their paths first crossed at Disney, where Duncan was instrumental in developing creative pipelines for major franchises like Star Wars, ESPN, Disney Parks & Resorts, and more. Arciero played a crucial role in building media pipelines and infrastructure for Disney’s global streaming services, including Disney+.
Charles Duncan and Nick Arciero subsequently collaborated on the development of Optikka, initially created to produce images for the visually impaired. However, the product evolved into a post-production compositing engine for graphic design, accelerated by bot integrations (GPT), leading to what Duncan refers to as “Bot-able design systems.”
“My initial focus was on helping companies produce rasterized, visual accessibility, and it unlocked the ability to talk to AI generators artistically,” explains Duncan. “With no-code and low-code toolsets, our tech can transform how commercial content owners and broadcasters create fully branded, internet-breaking content for their audiences in real-time. Through code-as-design capabilities at the pixel level, Optikka allows creators to fully unleash their creativity.”
VideoVerse has big plans for the newly acquired talent and the rapidly advancing CV/ML-based Magnifi AI. They aim to enable customers to transform thousands of assets into fully designed, consumer-ready highlights and narrative-based packages in real-time. Notably, Optikka is adaptable across various domains, including video, broadcast, XR, and metaverse platforms, ensuring its relevance in the ever-evolving landscape of content creation.
One of the key value propositions of Optikka is its ability to assist intellectual property owners in rapidly distributing and monetizing cultural events across a range of content, from news to entertainment and sports. VideoVerse intends to provide further details about the integration of Optikka and Magnifi at the NAB Las Vegas event scheduled for April 2024.
Exciting news! We’re now on WhatsApp Channels too. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest insights in the startup ecosystem! Click here!
Daniel Evans, SVP of Sales US, highlighted the potential for rapid, scalable content creation and hyper-personalization, saying, “Whether it’s a fast-moving meme or a record-shattering play, Optikka takes shareable moments to the marketplace with brand-optimized creative content that can be scaled and distributed to social media, advertising units, and merch drops in near-real-time. We’ll be a step closer to rapid, scalable content creation and hyper-personalization that protects our client’s brand and IP.”
