Clouted wants to take the guesswork out of making short videos go viral

Source: TechCrunch

The Rise of Short‑Form Video Clips

Short video clips from podcasts, songs, and movies are now ubiquitous on social media. Brands have recognized that this format offers a highly cost‑effective way to market products.

Marketing agencies often outsource the process of finding the most compelling 30‑ to 90‑second segment—known as “clipping”—to independent creators. Managing these gig workers and deciding where to distribute the clips, however, presents a massive operational challenge.

Clouted’s Automated Clipping and Distribution Platform

Clouted, a startup that participated in a16z’s Speedrun accelerator in 2024, is building infrastructure to automate both the distribution strategy and the logistics of the clipping process. The platform taps into a network of over 100 000 gig creators to edit clips, then uses AI to determine the optimal social‑media platform and target audience for promotion.

Co‑founder and CEO Justin Banusing first applied the technology to his personal passion—electronic music and festival production. As a longtime DJ, he used Clouted to promote and grow &Friends, a Manila‑based electronic dance‑music and pop‑culture festival that now draws over 20 000 attendees.

Funding Round

Clouted announced a $7 million seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, Peak XV’s Surge, and others.

AI‑Driven Testing Loop

Unlike purely volume‑driven marketing tools, Clouted does not chase high clip counts alone. Its AI runs a continuous testing loop, experimenting with different formats and channel strategies to identify what actually performs best. Each campaign feeds data back into the system, making subsequent campaigns more targeted and efficient.

The approach is akin to penetration testing for social‑media algorithms—a concept borrowed from cybersecurity. Rather than probing for security flaws, Clouted’s AI and creator network test thousands of clipping and distribution variations to discover what triggers virality.

“The result is that every campaign Clouted runs makes the next one faster, smarter, and more effective,” Banusing told TechCrunch. “The platform learns which formats win, which audiences convert, and which distribution channels compound over time.”

Competitive Landscape

Clouted competes directly with startups like Overlap AI in the automated clipping space. Banusing also cites larger marketing‑infrastructure players—CreatorIQ and Hightouch—as ultimate competition. Hightouch recently crossed $100 million in ARR, indicating that the enterprise marketing‑infrastructure market remains large and expanding.

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