TechCrunch Sep 17
Cinemacraft, a startup that wants to replace static video thumbnails with its interactive Videograms, has raised a $1.5 million strategic funding round from investors NTT DoCoMo, Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp and 500 Startups. Combined with an earlier seed round of $500,000 from 500 Startups and angel investors, this brings Cinemacraft’s total funding raised to date to $2 million.
Founded in July 2012 and based in Tokyo, Cinemacraft’s platform allows publishers to promote content with “Videograms,” or interactive images that highlight different clips from a video instead of the usual thumbnail. Cinemacraft says this gives its clients more opportunities for monetization and marketing on social media platforms. Videograms also allow publishers to create a visual summary of their video’s content, which gives them a better chance at enticing viewers than with a single freeze frame. An algorithm is used to determine which frames are shown on a Videogram, which is written completely in HTML5 to work across different platforms and products.