PicsArt acquires motion-based video effects company D’efekt

PicsArt, has acquired advanced video effects company D’efekt for an undisclosed sum. The female-led startup has been featured as an Apple “App of the Day” various times and offers motion-based video effects – including light illusions, music responsiveness, and fractal motion-activation, the company said. The app can be downloaded here.  D’efekt’s three co-founders – Vahagn Kachikyan, Nané Toumanian, and Tatevik Gasparyan –  will continue to build the independent app with further resource investment from PicsArt. D’Efekt is a U.S. company with a team based in Armenia.

“We’ve known the D’efekt team for more than a year. We’re thrilled they’ll be joining us as we continue to build the creative platform of the future,” said Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of PicsArt. “We see this deal as a win for everyone: Our millions of creators now have access to even more amazing video special effects, the D’efekt founders have support to build on their initial successes, and PicsArt is able to add more creative and technical talent to our tech-majority global team.”

The D’efekt app—which will be rebranded to include the PicsArt name over the next few weeks—adds to PicsArt’s suite of visual editing apps, including the all-in-one PicsArt photo and video-editing app on web and mobile. D’efekt turns users’ videos into works of art through world-class audio reactivity, object detection, and interactive objects. With just one tap, users can apply motion effects to a single person, multiple people, or an object, as well as make edits strictly to their video’s background. This multimedia addition builds on PicsArt’s recent integration with generative AI music, which produces unique audio matching soundtracks to user videos based on genre, mood, and more, the company said.