First Customer Leads Seed Round in Vizual.ai
WASHINGTON, DC (PRWEB) March 07, 2017 -- Vizual.ai, a cloud-based artificial intelligence software platform that creates and deploys optimized imagery for video and text based content, has secured a round of funding from Betaworks and the Guardian Media Group.
First tested in production during 2016 by Digg.com, a Betaworks studio company, Vizual.ai has increased user engagement rates on content by up to 100% and created significant lift in overall page yield metrics for web publishers. Based on the strength of results, Betaworks asked to lead a round with the Guardian Media Group.
“The idea behind Vizual.ai is simple, but the technology is complex,” said Doug Boccia, CEO of Vizual.ai. “Most users reach the most valuable digital content – ranging from publisher video or text articles, to e-commerce product descriptions, to new home listings – by clicking on a thumbnail selected by a human editor. A typical video on a publisher’s site is comprised of over 5,000 distinct images. The likelihood that the editor has chosen the optimal image thumbnail from those 5,000 is not high. And beyond video, when publishing an article, product description or most other content, the choice of which image to use is even more of a needle in a haystack. Vizual.ai, with a single line of javascript added to a publisher’s site, can find the optimal image.”
“As an investor, we look for innovative technologies that can drive significant value in media monetization,” said John Borthwick, Founder and CEO of Betaworks. “Given the strong results with one of our own sites, the ease of implementation, and the broad applicability of the technology, we wanted to help bring this capability to a wider market through both funding and strategic partnership with our family of companies.”
“As a publishing group, operating in a highly disrupted market, we immediately saw the applicability of Vizual.ai’s technology to the sector and to publisher goals of advancing the science and technology of publishing,” said Alan Hudson, Chief Investment Officer, Guardian Media Group. “We are excited to help bring more A.I. to publishing and to help drive the technology into the European market.”
“We are thrilled to be working with such strategic investment partners as Betaworks and the Guardian Media Group,” said Doug Boccia, CEO of Vizual.ai. “In addition to capital, Betaworks and the Guardian Media Group provide a wealth of practical knowledge, market insights and strategic relationships for early stage growth companies focused on the media and publishing communities.”
About Vizual.ai:
Vizual.ai is an A.I. content imagery optimization platform that integrates with publisher web pages to drive increased user engagement. The Vizual.ai platform automatically deploys static images and .gif formats for any site imagery including video thumbnails and text based content, increasing publisher click through rates and site monetization. Vizual.ai is the first company to launch from Foundry.ai, the artificial intelligence studio created by industry veterans Jim Manzi and Ned Brody.
For more information, visit http://www.Vizual.ai
Doug Boccia, Vizual.ai, http://www.vizual.ai, +1 4106524748, [email protected]
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