Sydney-based video crowdsourcing startup, Vloggi has announced the completion of its round 1 capital raise, banking $250,000 from a number of local angel tech investors.

Vloggi is the world’s first collaborative video production platform that uses artificial intelligence to process, sort and annotate user-generated video for use by businesses and social groups.

The $250,000 injection lays the foundation for Vloggi’s seed capital raise in June when it is targeting a further $1.5 million, expected to be sourced from a mix of existing investors and new, institutional venture capital firms that have confirmed interest.

Vloggi founder and CEO, Justin Wastnage (featured image) said quarter-million dollar raise will be used to commercialise the product and further develop the IP behind the automated AI video production technology powering the Vloggi platform.

The platform allows any team, to collaborate and produce authentic video stories without using video production companies or video editing software.

Wastnage explained: “Vloggi solves a pressing problem for all organisations, large or small, that is the sheer volume of video content needed for social media today.

“By combining automated video production with the sharing economy, we can turn an organisation’s fans into its filmmakers.”

The platform turns traditional filmmaking on its head. With Vloggi, brands set up a template once, then crowdsource the content letting Vloggi’s algorithms grade and produce personalised video content within their pre-set branding guidelines.

Wastnage believes Vloggi will completely transform how organisations think about, create, utilise and derive value from video.

He added: “For brands struggling to cut through the clutter and din of exploding digital channels, Vloggi represents a disruptive new way to harness the power of video for their marketing and digital communications in a quick, easy and affordable way.”

The platform also includes a video capture app for end-users, that features a range of quality enhancers to ensure that every 10-second video vignette uploaded is of consistent quality.

Vloggi employs a simple commercial model, whereby customers license the finished content either on a pay-as-you-go rate or via monthly subscription.

Rates are as low as US$20 per 10-second video.

Content creators receive at least 50 per cent of any license fees.

Vloggi is working with a number of pilot customers in Australia.

These include Sydney corporate travel agency Spencer Travel Group and online community Eastern Suburbs Mums.

The company has a letter of intent signed with large travel experience booking engine Leezair to integrate the production of real-time user-generated video reviews into its platforms.

Spencer Travel chief executive, Penny Spencer said: “Vloggi is a powerful platform that allows us to use our consultants and customers to shoot authentic, engaging videos as they travel that we can then re-use in our marketing.”

Charities, tourism marketers, as well as digital communities on social media platforms are also being targeted as verticals in need of large volumes of on-location user-generated video.

Wastnage added: “What we have seen is that anyone for whom location is central to their marketing really struggles with getting video.

“Vloggi makes multi-location videos easy and low-cost for the first time.”

Prior to the platform’s formal launch, slated for mid-2019, Vloggi has amassed around 10,000 10-second captioned video vignettes contributed from amateur filmmakers around the world.

Vloggi Pty Ltd was created as a 100 per cent subsidiary of Ciné Souk Pty Ltd as part of the capital raise announced today.

The round was led by Australian tech investor, Brendan Leonard, co-founder of Australian analytics pioneers Capiotech, which was bought by ASX-listed managed services firm ASG Group (ASX: ASZ) for $30 million in 2010.

Leonard said he saw an exciting opportunity to get involved with Vloggi, given that today professional video production is completely out of reach for all but the largest organisations.

Leonard commented: “Vloggi changes all that by reducing the cost of a 30-second clip from around $10,000 to $200 with our smartphone app and platform, while businesses can also white label Vloggi and use video to engage with their customers and influencers straight away.”

Leonard was joined by 11 other travel and tourism industry sector tech investors.