Microsoft Corp. today said it has acquired video editing platform startup Clipchamp Pty Ltd. for an undisclosed price.

Clipchamp was founded in 2013 in Brisbane, Australia, or as it terms the city, Meanjin on the traditional lands of the Yuggera Nation. The company pitches itself as a video editing platform that empowers anyone to tell stories worth sharing in English, versus the Turrbal language.

The company offers an in-browser platform that gives users access to professional video editing tools and features. Those features include simple cropping and resizing through special effects such as transitions, motion titles and green screen. In addition, Clipchamp also offers over 800,000 assets in a stock library along with hundreds of editable video templates.

Clipchamps’ service includes built-in sharing tools for social media, including style and aspect ratios for sites such as Twitter Inc., Pinterest Inc. and Facebook Inc. The service also supports Dropbox Inc., Box Inc., Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

Coming into the acquisition, Clipchamp claims to have more than 17 million users across 390,000 companies who create videos using their browser-based tools. Like many cloud-based companies, it has thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 54% year-over-year revenue growth. Notable customers include Microsoft, Google LLC, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. and Zendesk Inc.

“While social media videos have always been at the forefront of business needs, during the past year we’ve also witnessed the rapid adoption of internal communication use cases where there is a lot of screen and webcam recording taking place in our platform,” Clipchamp Chief Executive Officer Alexander Dreiling said in July. “The need for video templates has also accelerated … because they allow users with limited video editing skills and time to create a professional-grade video within minutes.”

In a blog post, Chris Pratley, corporate vice president for the Microsoft Office media group, said that he was “bubbling over with excitement” following the acquisition.

“Small business owners, marketers, influencers, students, educators, families and information workers of all types need the capability to make great videos with minimal effort,” Pratley said. “Whether it’s a 10-second social media ad, a two-minute pitch for a product, or a 20-minute instructional video, Clipchamp and Microsoft will provide the tools and experience you need.”

Clipchamp will be integrated as a service for Microsoft subscribers, with existing company customers converted to Microsoft subscribers.

Before its acquisition, Clipchamp had raised $15.3 million in venture capital funding, according to data from Crunchbase. Investors included TEN13, Tola Capital, Transition Level Investments and Mike Wallas.

Image: Clipchamp