Videoverse Acquires Optikka

VideoVerse, an AI-powered video solutions company, has recently acquired Optikka to expand media, design, and publishing capabilities within its real-time content automation platform, Magnifi.ai.

 “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,” said Prateek Sharma, the recently named Chief Strategy Officer at VideoVerse. “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 two key hires to the company with experience across multiple Disney business divisions–Charles Duncan, a creative technologist, and Nick Arciero, a global creative strategist. The Los Angeles-based hires Charles Duncan and Nick Arciero first crossed paths at Disney, where Duncan developed creative pipelines for Star Wars, ESPN, Disney Parks & Resorts, and more. Arciero was vital in building media pipelines and infrastructure across Disney+ and the company’s global streaming services.

The two recently reconnected to collaborate on Optikka, originally developed to create images for the visually impaired. The product has become a post-production compositing engine for graphic design that accelerated with bot integrations (GPT), which Duncan calls 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, who is color-blind. “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 plans to leverage the pair, along with the rapidly advancing CV/ML-based Magnifi AI, to allow customers to transform thousands of assets into fully designed, consumer-ready highlights and narrative-based packages as it happens. Optikka works across video, broadcast, XR, and metaverse platforms and will adapt to future formats.

 Optikka can help IP owners distribute and monetize cultural events within minutes, from news to entertainment and sports content. VideoVerse will share more information on Optikka and Magnifi’s integrations at NAB Las Vegas in April 2024.

 “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,” said SVP of Sales US, Daniel Evans. “We’ll be a step closer to rapid, scalable content creation and hyper-personalization that protects our client’s brand and IP.”