This French startup will help you create Netflix-quality online videos with few lines of code, raises €5M

Most apps and websites today are based around sharing text and images, because video is simply too complex to implement. Whether it’s for hotel reviews, dating sites or online marketplaces – video offers the ability to convey depth beyond what text and images can. 

Companies have held back from video due to the complexity, but api.video now enables it with only a few lines of code. This means developers can build transactional video communications at scale, regardless of the systems their companies use or the type of content they need. Just as Stripe enabled developers to handle payments and Twilio easily did the same for SMS, api.video will bring video capabilities to every developer.

Secures €5 million funding

Now recently, the Bordeaux-based end-to-end PaaS startup, api.video has raised $5.5 million (€5 million) in seed funding, led by early-stage experts at Blossom Capital, with participation from Kima Ventures and renowned angel investors. 

The existing angel investors include Octave Klaba (founder of OVH), Eduardo Ronzano (founder of KelDoc), Thibaud Elzière (founder of Fotolia), Nicolas Steegmann (founder of Stupeflix), Julien Romanetto & Frédéric Montagnon (co-founders of Teads) Florian Douetteau (founder of Dataiku) and Michaël Benabou and Dominique Romano (Veepee). 

The rise of transactional videos

In today’s camera-first world, transactional videos allow companies that don’t have video as a core part of their business to host content from a vast number of creators. 

Transactional video represents a fast-growing, new market in which api.video is a leading provider. In contrast to personal video services (Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu) in which a small number of creators show content to huge audiences, or marketing, in which brand content is driven through social networks, transactional video sits apart.

It allows existing platforms and apps that don’t have video as a core part of their business to serve content filmed by a large set of creators. These videos reach smaller, more engaged audiences across a wider range of segments. 

This could include video reviews filmed by holidaymakers uploaded to the likes of airbnb; clips posted to peer-learning, educational sites that help explain complex parts of a curriculum; or audiovisual contents in collaborative platforms that are usually text-oriented.

Basically, api.video’s cloud-based solution replaces the unnecessarily convoluted system with a bespoke end-to-end solution powered by an API that works from day one, while delivering Netflix-quality experience to audiences. It also adds video capabilities onto a company intranet; enables schools and universities to embrace the power of live streaming, or allows e-commerce brands to build bespoke players inside apps, to help sell products. 

Further, the startup also enables brands to take advantage of this rise in transactional videos simply and effectively by offering all the benefits of cloud-based software with the security and features of in-house programs in an accessible way. 

The api.video approach 

api.video’s approach works by abstracting the often messy, multi-step processes of modern video into an API that offers transcoding, hosting, delivery and analytics in a single package. 

Instead of relying on multiple third-party services, or building entire, expensive systems from scratch, api.video offers developers all the benefits of bespoke video platforms, in a secure, cloud-based, end-to-end solution. All while only ever paying for what they use, on a single bill, and all underpinned by api.video’s analytics. 

The benefit for companies is that they can offer live, on-demand and live streaming video at scale, across any and all of their systems and apps, without compromising on quality.

The benefit for audiences is that they get the high-quality, low-latency experience they have come to expect from the likes of Netflix but from brands and companies wherever they are consuming video, and on any screen and device. 

“The proliferation of smartphones has created a camera-first world. Anyone can be a director, anyone can share video and people watch these videos from anywhere in the world. This represents a huge opportunity for companies, but also a headache for developers. Particularly on platforms where these companies want or need to integrate video but where video is not a core part of their business,” explained api.video founder and CEO, Cédric Montet.

Main image credits: api.video