Voia, a startup co-founded by Israeli serial entrepreneurs that has developed an app that harnesses AI to help creators produce Hollywood production quality videos from every iPhone, has secured an initial $3 million in pre-seed funding from private investors.
The startup was founded in 2022 by Israeli entrepreneurs Avner Braverman, former co-founder and CEO of Reshuffle, which was bought up by Twitter; Haim Helman, co-founder of Octarine, acquired by VMWare, and co-founder of XIV, bought by IBM; and computer vision expert Noam Malali, a former machine learning adviser at AppsFlyer.
The other two founders are Mitch Singer, an entertainment and tech veteran, formerly with Sony Pictures; and Bryan Barber, previously VP Digital Initiatives at Warner Bros.
Voia, which employs 14 people across the US, says its app allows creators to enhance the quality of the videos they shoot on their phone to upload on social video platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The production quality is comparable to those in the film industry which requires budgets exceeding $1 million and the need for specialized 3D software and a professional studio setting.
“We founded Voia to bring Hollywood to every iPhone,” said Voia CEO Braverman. “We believe that when everyone can create such cinematic videos, we will see an explosion of creativity and engaging content in quantities and quality never before seen.”
The app uses advanced AI tools to enable video creators using their iPhones to produce visual effects with Hollywood production quality and bridge the large gap that exists between video quality on social networks, and the quality of music videos, TV ads and indie films.
“The challenges of achieving the Hollywood look using AI, require that we push the limits of our AI algorithms, and that we build a multidisciplinary product to enable creators to produce realistic visual effects,” said Malali who also serves as the head of AI at Voia. “We need to produce cinematic videos at near real time speeds, so that users don’t have to wait hours to see their final videos.”
“We will continue to push the envelope of technologies that enable every creator to produce Hollywood quality,” he added.
