Toch.ai Raises $11.75 Mn To Transform Digital Video Content Production And Monetisation

Toch.ai, an SaaS platform for the video content industry, has raised $11.75 Mn in Series A funding. Moneta Ventures, Baring Private Equity India, Binny Bansal, Ventureast, 9 Unicorns, Anthill Ventures, Cathexis Ventures, SOSV, Artesian and Innoven Capital participated in the round.

Founded in 2016 by Vinayak Shrivastav, Saket Dandotia and Alok Patil, Mumbai-based Toch.ai uses artificial intelligence to process video content. The platform’s algorithm meta-tags images, videos and text, and understands the context and identifies key moments in videos. 

With constantly decreasing attention span and the increased penetration of platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels, many content companies need to constantly churn out high-quality short-form videos to keep their audience engaged: a very manpower-intensive process, this is where Toch.ai platform comes into the picture. 

Businesses can use the platform to auto-create and share short-form video content from existing video feeds, live or recorded. 

For example, if you are a sports channel broadcasting a football game, Toch.ai’s platform can intelligently identify the moment a players score, edit the video, tag it with information and get it ready for distribution across various platforms as a short video.

The startup’s clients include broadcasters, OTT platforms,  media platforms and creators. 

Toch.ai claims to have saved 1.2+ Bn hours of video processing time, increased viewer time on video by 72%, and increased viewer engagement rates by 8.3x for its clients.

The funding will be used to scale up technology infrastructure and expand into newer global markets. 

In 2020, the Indian digital media industry was worth $3.16 Bn. According to an IBEF report, this is expected to grow to $5.72 Bn in 2023 at a CAGR of 22%. The segment had posted a growth of 26% in FY20. Of this, curated short video platforms are expected to account for 25% of all the online video viewing time by 2023.

Digital subscriptions for OTT platforms continued to rise 47% in FY20 despite OTT platforms increasing subscription fees and the economy slowing down. By 2025, regional language content consumption is expected to surpass Hindi language content consumption on OTTs.

Growing mobile, smartphone and internet penetration will continue to support these trends. The number of internet-connected smart televisions is expected to reach 40 Mn+ by 2025. It is estimated that 30% of the content viewed on these screens will be gaming, social media, short video and content produced exclusively for this format by media brands. 

Last month, Amazon rolled out ‘Prime Video Channels’ in partnership with eight content providers —  Discovery+, Lionsgate Play, Eros Now, DocuBay, MUBI, Hoichoi, ManoramaMAX, and ShortsTV. 

According to an Inc42 Plus, short, regional and live content will lead the way for the industry. The current global ad spend on digital video advertising is around $92 Bn, with two-thirds of that amount going to mobile video ads

According to statista, the video ad spend will reach an estimated $148 Bn in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 12.6%. By 2025 however, 79% of the digital video ad spend will go towards mobile ads.