Siri Developer Kim Joins Video Analyst Twelve Labs

Twelve Labs, whose software aims to understand video in the same way humans do, has secured $30m in funding from investors including three high-profile data infrastructure companies. It has also launched a new release of its Marengo software; and appointed Dr Yoon Kim as President.

Twelve Labs defines its mission as 'helping developers build programs that can see, listen, and understand the world as we do'. Its software analyses video content including audio and text elements, identifies actions and objects, classifies scenes and extracts topics, and establishes summaries, chapters and captioning. Users can also describe a moment in words and be taken straight to the relevant scene. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with an APAC office in Seoul, and is backed by a combination of venture capitalists, technology companies, AI luminaries and successful founders.

The firm is announcing the new investment round, supported by data integration and infrastructure companies Databricks, SK Telecom and Snowflake Ventures as well as HubSpot Ventures and In-Q-Tel (IQT), at the same time as launching a new video foundation model, Marengo 2.7, which it says 'applies an entirely new multi-vector approach to video understanding, yielding unprecedented results'. Databricks and Snowflake are meanwhile among those working on advanced integrations with Twelve Labs' software.

Completing the triple-whammy of big announcements, the company has brought in Yoon Kim as President and Chief Strategy Officer. Kim is perhaps best known for his key role in developing Apple's voice interface assistant Siri - he joined the iPhone maker in 2013 when it acquired Novauris Technologies, a speech recognition specialist of which he was CEO. He has also worked more recently as Partner at Saehan Ventures, where he was in charge of discovering and fostering promising AI and deep tech startups; and before that as CTO at SK Telecom, leading AI innovation.

CEO Jae Lee comments: 'While it is unusual for a company of Twelve Labs' age and stage to hire a President, this move is a testament to the demand we have experienced and the path we see moving forward. Yoon is the right person to help us execute... He will be instrumental in driving future growth with key acquisitions, expanding our global presence, and aligning our teams toward ambitious goals. He will also give us a unique talent advantage in South Korea'. He adds: 'We're incredibly excited to partner closely with leading data platforms. It's a no-brainer for us to bring our video foundation models to the largest and most trusted enterprise infrastructure providers'.

Kim will divide his time between the US and Korean offices.

Web site: www.twelvelabs.io .