Polarr raises $11.5 million to bring AI to photography and video

Polarr, the photo-editing app developer, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding from Threshold Ventures, Cota Capital and Pear Ventures, to support research and development, engineering and technology partnerships. In a blog post, company CEO and founder Borui Wang said the Series A process took three months:

When we started Polarr in 2015, our idea was to enable photographers to be more productive with more intelligent tools. With $1m of seed funding, we were able to reach profitability in mid-2016 and stayed cashflow positive until the team grew to 20 people in 2018.

We had a very clear idea when we started the company that the future of content is code, and the future in computation lies in smaller, more efficient mobile GPUs. In 2016 and 2017, we saw the research and publication community in computational content generation and editing start to grow exponentially. New research papers were repurposing conventional algorithms for creative work in music, writings, and imageries on weekly basis…

In order to scale up our AI research and AI deployment capabilities, we need to have a bigger team to work on all the moving parts in the correct order…

We started to pitch our company in October 2018…After closing the round in December, we’ve been heads down coordinating our effort in hiring, planning and executing new initiatives in the company.

Press release reproduced below:

Polarr Raises $11.5M to Bring the Power of AI on the Edge to Photography and Video; Inks Deal with Samsung to Deliver AI Features to the Galaxy S10

Strong company momentum with 20 million app downloads, partnerships with leading OEMs and hardware makers, and new financing

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Polarr, an innovator of edge AI technology for photography, video and other creative processes, today announced it has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture) with participation from Cota Capital and Pear Ventures. The new funding will support R&D, engineering, and technology partnership initiatives.

Polarr’s computer vision and deep learning technology is transforming mobile photography, video, and other creative work, allowing anyone to create professional-quality content using powerful tools for composing, editing, and curating photos and videos. The Polarr Photo Editor is a photo editing application used globally by more than four million novice and professional photographers each month.

Polarr Delivers Powerful AI Composition Capabilities to Samsung Galaxy S10

Polarr developed a deep-learning based AI composition capability for the native camera app on the new Samsung Galaxy S10, which sports a breakthrough display, camera, and intelligent performance. The Galaxy S10’s Composition Guide uses Polarr’s technology, trained with thousands of shots from professional photographers, to guide the user to the most desirable composition interactively, creating the perfect image every time.

Polarr Powers the Future of Creative AI

Deep learning has exploded, with AI giants building advanced frameworks and mobile device makers building ever more specialized chipsets. However, developers must re-learn how to work with each and every chip. The Polarr Vision Engine is chip agnostic from a developer’s perspective, providing a higher-level abstraction to run deep learning models on any device – from the latest smartphones to drone cameras. All of Polarr’s AI modules run entirely on the edge, with low memory and power consumption.

“Polarr’s expertise across design, hardware, and deep learning is really unique,” said Chris Kelley, a partner at Threshold Ventures. “Not only do they give consumers a way to leverage skills from the world’s best photographers, but pros can also use their tools to create something really special.”

Chris Kelley will join Polarr’s board of directors, along with Mar Hershenson of Pear Ventures.

Polarr’s AI composition solution is based on the Polarr Vision Engine, a core technology infrastructure used to power other proprietary Polarr solutions designed for current and future consumer apps to harness the power of AI to deliver unique, creative, and visual experiences. In addition to Samsung, the Polarr Vision Engine is used by other leading consumer hardware and software makers including Qualcomm, Oppo, and HoverCam. Polarr is currently working on expanding its platform support and service capability to allow more developers to enjoy the same power and benefits of the engine.

“As deep learning compute shifts from the cloud to edge devices, there is a growing opportunity to provide sophisticated and creative edge AI technologies to mobile devices,” said Borui Wang, co-founder and CEO, Polarr. “This new round of financing is a tangible endorsement of our approach to enable and inspire everyone to make beautiful creations.”

About Polarr

With offices in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, Polarr develops edge AI technology for photography, video and other creative use cases to give all photographers the professional tools and resources they need to create their best work possible. With expertise in on-device model training and compression, use case discovery and execution speed, Polarr’s flagship photography app, Polarr Photo Editor, is currently used by more than 20 million photographers around the world. The company’s technologies are also embedded in some of the hottest mobile devices including the Samsung Galaxy S10.