Clouted raises $7M to automate short video clipping and distribution for brands

Brands and marketing agencies are increasingly turning to short-form video clips to promote products, but identifying the most compelling 30 to 90 seconds of content — a process known as ‘clipping’ — and distributing those clips effectively remains a logistical challenge. Clouted, a startup that emerged from a16z’s Speedrun accelerator in 2024, is building an infrastructure platform to automate both the clipping process and the distribution strategy.

How Clouted works

Clouted taps into a network of over 100,000 gig creators who edit clips from longer content. The platform then uses AI to determine the best social media platform and target audience for each clip. Rather than simply maximizing the number of clips produced, Clouted’s AI operates a continuous testing loop, experimenting with different formats and channel strategies to identify what actually performs best.

Co-founder and CEO Justin Banusing first applied the technology to his personal passion: electronic music and festival production. As a longtime DJ, he used Clouted to promote and grow &Friends, a Manila-based electronic dance music and pop-culture festival that now draws over 20,000 people.

Funding and market positioning

Clouted has raised a $7 million seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, Peak XV’s Surge, and others. The startup competes directly with similar automated clipping platforms like Overlap AI, but Banusing said he looks to larger marketing infrastructure players — specifically CreatorIQ and Hightouch — as the ultimate competition. Hightouch recently crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, suggesting the enterprise marketing infrastructure space is large and still expanding.

Why this matters for brands and creators

Short video clips from podcasts, songs, and movies are everywhere on social media, and brands have realized the format offers a highly cost-effective way to market products. However, managing gig workers and determining distribution strategies presents a massive operational challenge. Clouted aims to solve that by accumulating data on what works, making each campaign more targeted and efficient than the last.

Banusing described the approach as similar to penetration testing for social media algorithms — a concept borrowed from cybersecurity. Instead of looking for security flaws, Clouted’s AI and creator network test thousands of different clipping and distribution approaches to identify what triggers a piece of content to go viral.

Conclusion

Clouted’s $7 million seed round signals investor confidence in the growing demand for automated short-form video marketing infrastructure. By combining a large creator network with AI-driven testing and distribution, the startup aims to take the guesswork out of viral content — and position itself as a key player in the enterprise marketing technology space.

FAQs

Q1: What is Clouted?
Clouted is a startup that uses AI and a network of over 100,000 gig creators to automate the process of clipping and distributing short-form video content for brands and marketing agencies.

Q2: How does Clouted’s AI determine where to distribute clips?
The platform runs a continuous testing loop, experimenting with different formats and channel strategies to identify which approaches drive the best engagement, then optimizes future campaigns based on accumulated data.

Q3: Who are Clouted’s main competitors?
Clouted competes directly with automated clipping platforms like Overlap AI, but views larger marketing infrastructure companies such as CreatorIQ and Hightouch as its ultimate market rivals.