From football to documentaries and social media: How Estonian startup is transforming video editing
Estonian video-tech startup SoFutu aims to revolutionize automated video editing across industries, having secured backing from AWS and a major Nordic media house.
The company’s journey began with an unexpected customer request from a Bulgarian football team struggling with time-consuming video analysis.
“They were spending four to five hours a day processing video from their training, next rival, and last game,” explains Federico Winer, SoFutu’s Argentinian founder. This manual video editing bottleneck is common among tier-two to tier-five sports teams that lack dedicated video analysis departments.
While the company’s initial solution helped sports teams cut their video processing time by 50%, SoFutu has evolved beyond sports to target broader markets. The startup has developed an AI algorithm that detects video and audio content patterns, making it a valuable tool for social media creators, television producers, and filmmakers.
“For every minute you edit in cinema or documentaries, you can have hundreds of hours of editing,” Winer notes. “While we’ll never replace the artistic component, we can save hundreds of hours on rough cuts for different teams across the industry.”
SoFutu believes it stands out in the competitive AI video editing landscape because of its focus on efficiency and accessibility. “We deliver 80% of the result at 20% of the cost,” says Winer. The company has also designed its solution to work offline, considering potential customers in regions with limited internet connectivity.
The startup’s Estonian base has proved advantageous. As the only EU-based company among major players in the automated video analysis market, SoFutu believes it is well-positioned to capitalize on the EU’s push for AI and machine learning solutions. The company is one of the first teams in Tehnopol Startup Incubator`s Film and Multimedia Accelerator.
SoFutu has shown promising early traction, reaching 100 users in its first quarter and securing an investment from Amazon Web Services for its AI cloud prototype. A Nordic media hub has signed a €50,000 letter of intent, looking to implement VisioTag’s technology to improve workflows for over 200 journalists.
Looking ahead, SoFutu aims to reach more than 10.000 users within five years. The company is seeking partners to help productize its AI module in the cloud and additional funding to accelerate B2B sales growth in the media industry.
“The media industry is shifting,” Winer explains, drawing from his experience at major American sports media outlets. “You need new tools to achieve your goals. It’s about how you present the information, not just the information anymore.”
The activities of Tehnopol Startup Incubator’s Film and Multimedia Accelerator are funded by the European Union.
