Voia raises $2.8m, paves way for filmmakers everywhere

Voia has successfully secured £2.2 million (about $2.8 million) in pre-seed funding from private investors. The start-up, founded in 2022 and boasting a team of 14 scattered across the United States, aims to transform video creation with its cutting-edge AI technology.

The brains behind Voia comprise a blend of seasoned Hollywood and Silicon Valley professionals. The team includes Avner Braverman, formerly of Reshuffle (acquired by Twitter); Mitch Singer, with over two decades of leadership experience at Sony Pictures; Haim Helman, co-founder of Octarine (acquired by VMware) and XIV (acquired by IBM); AI and computer vision expert Noam Malali; and Bryan Barber, previously VP Digital Initiatives at Warner Bros.

Voia’s app promises to enable creators to drastically enhance the quality of their videos, employing advanced AI capabilities to produce Hollywood standard visual effects.

Considering the estimated 100 million creatives currently active on social video-sharing platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, Voia presents a compelling solution to bridge the divide between amateur home-produced videos and professional-grade content.

This could be a game-changer for the African film industry. With the continent’s flourishing film culture, from Nollywood in Nigeria to emerging film scenes in countries like South Africa and Kenya, Voia’s technology could democratise access to high-quality production capabilities.

The tool promises to enable African film makers to create Hollywood-grade videos using nothing more than their iPhones, potentially overcoming the traditional financial barriers associated with high-end film production.

“We are pushing the boundaries of AI,” says Noam Malali, Voia co-founder and AI lead.

“The challenges of replicating the Hollywood aesthetic compel us to stretch our AI algorithms to their maximum potential. Our aim is to create cinematic videos at near real-time speeds, eliminating the need for users to wait hours to view their final videos. We will continue to innovate technologies that enable every creator to produce Hollywood quality.”

Voia’s CEO Avner Braverman shares a similar sentiment, envisioning a universal impact: “We founded Voia to bring Hollywood to every iPhone. We believe that when everyone can create such cinematic videos, we will witness an explosion of creativity and engaging content in quantities and quality never seen before.”

Voia’s successful pre-seed funding speaks volumes about the growing interest in the convergence of Hollywood production standards and AI-powered consumer tech. For African film makers, this could signal the dawn of a new era of accessible, high-quality content production.

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