Silicon Valley Comes For Another AI Startup

Magic Pony’s Video Enhancing Technology

When two co-founders Rob Bishop and Zehan Wang from London’s Imperial College started toying with the idea of Magic Pony, little did they know that Twitter will set its eyes on it one day. Twitter has just paid a whopping $150m to acquire the team of 14. Of this deal, the two co-founders have made close to about $75m.

It almost seems like a trend now with major Silicon Valley companies eying AI and machine learning startups.

What Does Magic Pony Do?

With increased video content all over the internet, need for better picture quality has increased multifold. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have to compress videos in order to play them smoothly without any buffering issues.

In such a scenario, Magic Pony has upped the game one level by developing the ability to drastically improve low-lit, grainy videos taken from mobiles and other cameras. It can even make pixilated images seem sharper, thus improving your online video viewing or even gaming experience.

Magic Pony uses an algorithm based on machine learning or AI to assess videos and continually learn for better and better video quality.

The Way Forward

Many companies are in the race to take online videos to the next level. For example, Google is working on an AI-based algorithm that can use video and audio to better categorize the content.

With more and more US companies eyeing AI-based European startups, it is a golden opportunity for these entrepreneurs to grow off US funding.

Magic Pony’s team will now work with Twitter to further their AI research and CEO Rob Bishop will be moving to California to handle the operations there.

Takeaways:-

• Twitter has acquired Magic Pony for $150m.
• Magic Pony has developed a self-learning AI algorithm that can improve low-lit, pixilated, grainy online videos.
• The two co-founders have made close to about $75m from this deal.
• The team will now work with Twitter on developing their AI arm.