Clouted Solves the Viral Short Video Puzzle

The widespread presence of short video clips from podcasts, music, and films across social media platforms is no coincidence. This format has been recognized by brands as an exceptionally cost-effective method for product promotion.

To identify the most impactful 30 to 90-second segments of video, a process known as ‘clipping’, brands and marketing agencies frequently engage independent creators. However, coordinating these gig workers and strategizing the precise distribution channels for these clips poses a significant operational hurdle.

Clouted, a startup that participated in a16z’s Speedrun accelerator in 2024, is developing infrastructure designed to automate both the distribution strategy and the logistical complexities of the clipping process. Its platform leverages a network exceeding 100,000 gig creators for clip editing, subsequently employing artificial intelligence to pinpoint the optimal social media platforms and target audiences for promotion.

Justin Banusing, Clouted’s co-founder and CEO, initially applied the company’s technology to his personal passion: electronic music and festival production. Drawing on his extensive experience as a DJ, he utilized Clouted to promote and expand &Friends, a Manila-based electronic dance music and pop-culture festival that now attracts over 20,000 attendees.

Clouted’s innovative methodology has successfully captured investor attention. The startup recently disclosed a $7 million seed funding round, spearheaded by Slow Ventures, and including contributions from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, Peak XV’s Surge, among other participants.

Diverging from marketing tools focused solely on high volume, Clouted’s strategy extends beyond merely accumulating a large number of clips. Instead, its AI employs a continuous testing loop, systematically experimenting with various content formats and channel strategies to identify optimal performance. This practical approach ensures that each subsequent campaign becomes more precisely targeted and efficient, as the system progressively gathers data on successful tactics.

Clouted’s operational model bears a resemblance to penetration testing for social media algorithms, a concept adapted from cybersecurity where researchers deliberately probe a system’s defenses. However, instead of uncovering security vulnerabilities, Clouted’s AI, supported by its extensive creator network, tests thousands of distinct clipping and distribution methodologies to pinpoint the factors that drive content virality.

"The result is that every campaign Clouted runs makes the next one faster, smarter, and more effective," Banusing explained to TechCrunch. He further elaborated, "The platform learns which formats win, which audiences convert, and which distribution channels compound over time."

While Clouted directly competes with emerging startups such as Overlap AI in the automated clipping sector, Banusing identifies larger marketing infrastructure entities, specifically CreatorIQ and Hightouch, as its ultimate competitive benchmarks. Hightouch’s recent achievement of over $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) underscores the substantial and growing nature of the enterprise marketing infrastructure market—a segment Clouted is strategically positioning itself to address.