Video editing app Givit launches with $2.5M in the bag

The video editing/sharing app is targeting the Instagram-for-video market

Ever since my son was born, I’ve become the Facebook friend that’s always bombing your news feed with baby pictures.  Yeah, that’s right.  My kid is cute.  Deal with it. 

I have to admit, though—I’m also the Facebook friend that posts videos of my kid doing cute stuff, but sometimes that cute thing that he does doesn’t come until the very end of a two or three minute stretch of dead air.  So you can either skip the video entirely and invite my wrath (admit my kid is cute, damn it!), or you can sit and wait for three minutes for my baby to blow a spit bubble.

A new video sharing app, Givit, will finally let obnoxious parents like me edit our videos cut out all the boring dead-air moments and add a few polished effects.  Endeavoring to be the Instagram of video sharing, Givit launched Tuesday for the iPhone with $2.5 million in funding from ATA Ventures and JK&B Capital.

The app simplifies video editing by letting you do it as you’re recording.  Let’s say you want to record little Susie’s first trip to the zoo.  No one wants to see two solid hours of video of your kid at the zoo.  With Givit, you can tap the screen as you’re recording to highlight specific moments.  The app will then recap seven seconds earlier and make that into a single clip. 

You can make several clips and then “sew” them together with artsy little transitions, like a fade-to-black, or a cross fade.  And you can add a background score of your choice, either from your own iPod playlists, or from Givit’s selection.  You can also add motion effects, like slow motion, fast forward, double-takes, and instant replay.

So instead of two solid hours of boring-ass video, you end up with five minutes consisting of two or three entertaining clips, complete with background music and polished transitions.

Givit isn’t the first to try to corner the Instagram-for-video-sharing market.  Players like SocialCam, Viddy, and Klip have already jumped in with their own editing/sharing options.  Givit differentiates itself by not having a length restriction like Viddy, nor does it limit videos to a single clip, like SocialCam, which was acquired by Autodesk this summer. 

The app is free to download and comes with 5GB of storage at signup.  Otherwise, users can pay an annual fee of $29.99 for 100GB of storage.

“The end goal is to attract paid subscribers through a word of mouth marketing model by making the features and an ample amount of storage available to the majority of the market for free,” said Givit founder and CEO Greg Kostello. 

Kostello says the $2.5 million in funding will be used for development, marketing and PR, sustainability, and expansion to other platforms down the road.