Clipto, a San Francisco-based startup that uses AI to index and search video, audio, and documents stored on users’ computers, has raised $15 million in an all-equity round at a $250 million post-money valuation, the company told Bitcoin World.
Funding and investors
The round includes investments from HSG (formerly Sequoia China), GL Ventures, EnvisionX Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Hans Tung, Lu Zhang, and 522 Ventures. Clipto says it has reached $15 million in annual recurring revenue as of early 2026 and remains profitable on a net-income basis. The company has just over 20 employees across the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
What Clipto does
Clipto indexes videos, audio, images, meetings, and other files on a user’s computer, allowing them to search by describing what they’re looking for. Users can also ask AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to find information within those files, provided the user grants access. All processing runs locally on the user’s device, with no cloud services involved.
Why this matters
As generative AI makes it easier to produce content, the volume of files on personal devices is growing rapidly. Clipto addresses the problem of finding and reusing existing content, rather than creating new material. The company’s founder, Henry Kang, has worked on similar challenges for nearly two decades, including a PhD project at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 that involved robots remembering objects they encountered.
Market context
Clipto competes with features from larger companies like Adobe, Apple, and Google, which offer AI-powered search within their own platforms. Clipto differentiates by searching across multiple file types and integrating with external AI agents. The company recently added support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard that lets AI applications connect to outside data sources, with user authorization.
User base and growth
Clipto initially targeted video creators but now serves a broader audience, including lawyers, doctors, researchers, marketers, HR professionals, professors, and students. The company says more than 30 million people have used its products since launch, with hundreds of thousands of paying users. Kang declined to provide precise subscriber numbers or average revenue per customer but noted that a significant portion of customers remain for more than two years.
Conclusion
Clipto’s new funding will support AI model development, computing infrastructure, and integrations with more AI agents. The company is betting that a standalone product for searching personal content can succeed alongside the built-in features of larger platforms.
FAQs
Q1: How does Clipto protect user privacy?
Clipto processes all indexing and search locally on the user’s device. When an AI application accesses indexed data, it requires the user’s active request and authorization, and can only retrieve information within the scope the user specifies.
Q2: What types of files can Clipto search?
Clipto can index videos, audio, images, meetings, and other documents stored on a user’s computer, allowing for natural-language searches across multiple file types.
Q3: Who is Clipto’s target audience?
While initially built for video creators, Clipto now serves a wide range of professionals, including lawyers, doctors, researchers, marketers, HR professionals, professors, and students.
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