Video analytics firm Vidooly raises Series C capital from Alibaba, Times Internet

Video analytics startup Vidooly Media Tech Pvt. Ltd has raised Rs 15.14 crore ($2.12 million as per current exchange rates) in a Series C funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, its filings with the Registrar of Companies state.

Alibaba Netherlands BV, an associate company of the e-commerce firm, has put in Rs 14.37 crore while rest came from existing investor Times Internet, the digital business arm of media conglomerate Times Group.

The company’s valuation after the Series C round stands at $10 million.

Email queries on the funding round sent to Vidooly, Alibaba and Times Internet did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this report.

The development was first reported by an online media publication, Entrackr.

The company last raised Rs 9 crore (around $1.4 million) from Times Internet and venture capital firm Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL), in July 2017.

The company, which also counts Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners among its investors, was launched in November 2014 by Subrat Kar, Ajay Mishra and Nishant Radia.

Vidooly is an online video intelligent marketing and analytics suite that helps content creators, brands and multi-channel networks (MCNs) to maximise organic views, build an audience base and earn more revenues online. It does this through its software suite that offers advanced features such as video tag suggestion, best time to upload, search rank analysis, competitor tracking and subscriber behaviour analysis.

Since its beta launch in November 2014, Vidooly has added more than 5,000 YouTube channels and 50 companies to the list of customers using its dashboard. Nearly 120,000 videos are uploaded every month through Vidooly’s network while its big data engine analyses more than 500 million monthly videos through its platform.

In 2016, the Noida-based company acquired iNiD Digimedia Pvt. Ltd, which runs over-the-top content (OTT) platform iCouchApp, for an undisclosed amount.

The video analytics space has not only startups offering solutions but large companies as well.

Last month, Japanese electronics company Sony Corp has introduced a new artificial intelligence-based hardware for cameras that make human inventory unnecessary. According to the company, the AI module can be used to create video films from a presentation and managing the display without human interface.