Video Editing AI Assistant Cutback Secures 3.5 Billion KRW in Seed Funding

Led by Kakao Ventures and Base Ventures
AI Video Agent for Professional Editors
"Editing Time Reduced by Up to 90%"

On July 29, the video editing artificial intelligence (AI) assistant 'Cutback' announced that it has secured seed funding worth 3.5 billion KRW. This investment round was co-led by Kakao Ventures and Base Ventures, with participation from Smilegate Investment and others.

Cutback is an AI video editing agent designed for professional video editors. First, users upload their original footage and specify their desired editing direction. Cutback then automatically completes a draft cut of the video. It also autonomously performs essential video tasks such as removing repetitive sections, generating and translating subtitles, and more. Additionally, it can be integrated with existing editing tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro. Its main strength is that it can be easily adopted while maintaining the existing workflow.

Since its initial launch in April last year, Cutback has been rapidly growing, securing paid customers worldwide. Without any external investment, it has achieved over 1 billion KRW in annual recurring revenue (ARR). The service is currently used by YouTubers with millions of subscribers, domestic and international broadcast producers and broadcasters, as well as global content studios. By streamlining the complex and labor-intensive video editing process using AI technology, Cutback has reduced editing time by up to 90%.

With this investment, Cutback plans to further advance its proprietary AI model. The company will hire additional industry experts in AI and video, and accelerate its entry into the global video editing market. The Cutback team is led by CEO Kim Damhyung, formerly a product lead at Toss, and is composed of professionals from leading Korean IT companies such as Toss, Kakao, and Remember, as well as global tech companies like AWS and Amazon, and AI engineers with over 10 years of experience.

Yang Hyungjun, Director at Base Ventures, said, "CEO Kim Damhyung has been developing the product at the Base Ventures office even before the company was established," adding, "We decided to invest not only because of the outstanding product quality and obsession with users, but also because we saw the growing ambition of the team."

Jang Dongwook, Director at Kakao Ventures, stated, "The Cutback team has demonstrated a level of product quality that satisfies even highly skilled video editing professionals. In the midst of the AI application boom, they stand out as a rare team that competes through the strength of their product."

CEO Kim Damhyung commented, "Although we live in an era of video content, the video editing process has not changed from 30 years ago. We aim to lower the barriers to editing so that anyone can create video content more easily and quickly, allowing more stories to be shared with the world through content."