The new innovators

VideoCrisp Taking the nasty out of video editing

VIDEO MARKETING is fast becoming a “must have” in business. Customers like visuals. So do search engines.

“Studies have shown that a website with video content is over 50 times more likely to appear on Google’s first search page than a website with no video content,” says Abhinav Chugh, founder of new digital software company, VideoCrisp, who believes that video editing for business should be easy to use, accessible from anywhere and not require any technical expertise.

VideoCrisp is aimed at start-ups and SMEs who do not have big budgets to make videos. It is a cloud-based system and users can opt for either pay-as-you-go pricing or can become premium members for a recurring fee.

Premium membership will bring benefits such as discounts. The cost of using the service will be based on the length of the video being made. The company is still working on its final pricing. The VideoCrisp product includes a new editing technique that facilitates sophisticated editing on both web and mobile.

“VideoCrisp will allow users to create new videos or edit existing videos and to embed templates, music, bullet points, photographs and additional video clips with just a few clicks and without the need of complex and expensive video editing software,” says Chugh whose company is based at the Nova Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.

Chugh raised €100,000 to launch the company which includes €50,000 from Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund.

The product will be officially launched in March and once it gains traction, Chugh will be looking to raise around €800,000 later in the year to progress the company’s development.

VideoCrisp is at a very early stage and has not yet recruited staff. Chugh says it will be looking for digital marketing professionals in due course.

Chugh’s background is IT and online product development and he has worked with companies such as T-Mobile UK and LVMH Japan.

This is not his first experience of a start-up. In 2010 he set up Waybiz.com, a B2B portal that helps buyers find trusted vendors worldwide on the strength of verified business referrals.

Waybiz.comcurrently has over 27,000 client recommendations from over 70,000 businesses in 110 countries.

– OLIVE KEOGH