Picsart acquires research and development company DeepCraft in a seven-figure
Picsart acquires research and development company DeepCraft in a seven-figure deal to bolster its video push
A research and development company known as DeepCraft has been acquired by Picsart, a SoftBank-backed digital creation platform that recently achieved unicorn status. Although the exact terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, it is believed to be in the seven-figure range and will involve a combination of cash and stock.
In today's world, Picsart provides a variety of digital creation and editing tools that are geared toward consumers as well as professionals, and that make photo and video editing more enjoyable and approachable for everyone. The company believes that DeepCraft's artificial intelligence technical talent, as well as its breakthroughs in computer vision and machine learning, will complement Picsart's own artificial intelligence technology, allowing the company to better support the service's recent growth in the video creation market. According to the company, the team will also contribute senior resources to Picsart's artificial intelligence research and development arm, PAIR (Picsart AI Research).
The company, which is based in Armenia, was established in 2017. With a focus on video and image processing, DeepCraft was the country's first unicorn, and it continues to be so today. In addition to their years of experience in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, its co-founders, Armen Abroyan (CEO) and Vardges Hovhannisyan (CTO), have built a reputation for themselves in the local community for their expertise. A former Deputy Minister of the Republic of Armenia's Ministry of High Technology Industry, Abroyan has also held positions as Lead AI Architect at RedKite and Senior Software Developer at Synopsys. Meanwhile, Hovhannisyan worked as a senior research and development engineer at Synopsys for 13 years.
During their time at DeepCraft, the team completed contract work for a variety of clients, including Krisp, PatriotOne, and the Armenian Ministry of Defense. As a result of the completion of this work, the team will relocate to Picsart's offices in Yerevan. Upon closing, Picsart will hire the entire DeepCraft team of eight senior machine learning and video engineers, who will work for the company on a full-time basis.
Following the acquisition of EFEKT (previously D'efekt) in 2018, Picsart entered the video market, and usage has increased significantly in recent years — particularly as its app has been adopted by social media creators and e-commerce businesses that make use of video. More than 180 million videos have been edited in PicsArt's app so far in 2021, representing a 70% increase from the same period last year. Thousands of effects and dozens of video editing tools are now available, and the company plans to expand its offering as artificial intelligence and cloud technology advance, according to a press release.
PictureScape is particularly intrigued by the prospect of DeepCraft's skill set and technological expertise assisting the company in its advancement of video support, which the company anticipates will be a major focus in the year 2022.
Picsart, on the other hand, has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is not purchasing any specific intellectual property from DeepCraft as part of this transaction.
PicsArt and DeepCraft already had a working relationship prior to the acquisition, having collaborated on a number of technology developments.
Founder and CTO Artavazd Mehrabyan described DeepCraft as "a one-of-a-kind team of deep technology engineers." "We've been working with DeepCraft on developing our core technologies for more than a year," he added. We are confident that the DeepCraft team will play a critical role in defining the future of video as we continue to invest in developing our video capabilities," he continued.
Following a $130 million Series C round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 in August, Picsart has made its first acquisition since raising that capital. As a result of the round, the company's valuation increased to unicorn status, up from approximately $600 million in 2019.
