VerSe Innovation acquires photo, video sharing app Vebbler – The Economic Times
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purchased AI solutions provider Cognirel Technologies.
VerSe Innovation, which owns news aggregator and short-video platform Josh, said Vebbler’s acquisition will bring artificial intelligence-based neural art filters and other creative tools to Josh.
Vebbler lets users join groups and share photos and videos across over 100 categories like fashion, travel, photography, and entertainment among others. Apart from AI filters, it also provides creation tools like stickers, GIFs, camera effects, drawing tools and fonts.
Founded in 2013 by Sahil Bhagat, Vebbler started off as a private social network for users to share real-time photos and videos with friends from occasions like weddings, concerts and holidays among others. However, it later pivoted into an interest-based network in 2018.
Among its backers include celebrities like Dino Morea and Nikhil Chinapa, People Group CEO Anupam Mittal, former Mu Sigma chief executive Ambiga Subramanian and iSPIRT co-founder Sharad Sharma.
“The combination of Vebbler’s product capabilities with our platform will improve our ability to drive innovation around the camera and social engagement and play a more meaningful role in capturing the mindshare, timeshare, and revenue share of Bharat’s local language users,” said VerSe Innovation founder Virendra Gupta and co-founder Umang Bedi in a statement.
VeSse Innovation has in the past three months raised more than $200 million from investors such as Google, Microsoft, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation, pushing its valuation past $1 billion.
The company’s short video app Josh competes with more than a dozen short-video apps in India, including MX Player’s TakaTak, Glance-owned Roposo, and Instagram Reels, all of which have been vying for the top spot in the country after TikTok’s ban in June last year.
Disclosure: MX Player is part of Times Internet that owns ETtech.