Clipto, a San Francisco-based AI media search startup, has raised $15 million in an all-equity round at a $250 million post-money valuation. The funding round included investors such as HSG, GL Ventures, and 522 Ventures. Clipto indexes videos, audio, images, meetings, and other files on a user’s computer, allowing users to search for content by description or through AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. The company aims to help users find and reuse existing files rather than generate new content. Clipto founder Henry Kang emphasized the growing challenge of managing vast amounts of digital content, stating that users have too much video footage sitting unused on their devices. He noted that the company’s initial focus was on video creators, but its user base now includes professionals across various industries. Kang also highlighted that Clipto’s search capabilities extend beyond files stored within its own services, allowing access to data from Adobe, Apple, and Google. The company remains profitable on a net-income basis and has over 20 employees spread across San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Clipto recently added support for the Model Context Protocol, enabling AI applications to connect with indexed data while ensuring user control and authorization. All processing runs locally on the user’s device without requiring cloud services. The new funding will support AI models and computing infrastructure for consumer hardware, as well as integrations with more AI agents. Clipto is entering a market where larger companies already control much of the data and software people use to manage it. Adobe, Apple, and Google already offer AI-powered search features, but Clipto’s approach allows users to search across multiple file types and external services. The company is betting that combining these functions in one product will help it compete with larger platforms. Clipto is also making selected information available to AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. The company says more than 30 million people have used its products since launch, and it has hundreds of thousands of paying users. Kang declined to provide a more precise user count or average revenue per customer, though he said a significant portion of customers remain active for more than two years. Clipto reached $15 million in annual recurring revenue at the beginning of 2026. The company has just over 20 employees split among the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong, and Singapore. About two weeks ago, Clipto added support for Model Context Protocol, or MCP, a standard that allows AI applications to connect with outside sources of information. Kang said access to indexed files requires the user’s active request and authorization. When an AI application accesses Clipto’s indexed data, it can only retrieve information within the scope the user specifies. All of this processing runs locally on the user’s device without requiring cloud services, Kang added. Clipto is entering a market where larger companies already control much of the data and software people use to manage it. Adobe already offers AI-powered search in Premiere, while Apple Photos and Google Photos allow users to find photos and videos using natural-language descriptions. Kang said Clipto can search across videos, audio, images, and documents, while products from Adobe, Apple, and Google generally focus on files stored within their own services. Clipto also lets users make selected information available to AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. The company is betting that combining those functions in one product will help it compete with larger platforms. The new funding will go toward the AI models and computing infrastructure needed to run Clipto on consumer hardware, as well as integrations with more AI agents, Kang said. Topics AI, ai agent, Asia, Generative AI, Singapore, Startups, United States When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Kate Park Reporter, Asia Kate Park is a reporter at TechCrunch, with a focus on technology, startups and venture capital in Asia. She previously was a financial journalist at Mergermarket covering M&A, private equity and venture capital. View Bio October 13 – 15 San Francisco Don’t miss out. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era? REGISTER NOW Most Popular MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1 in Navigation after refusing to rename Lake Ontario Sarah Perez Musk’s faster path to more gas turbines comes with pollution problem Connie Loizos Nvidia’s AI advantage is moving beyond the GPU Russell Brandom Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open source duck robot, Microduck Rebecca Bellan Nvidia closes in on Hugging Face acquisition Connie Loizos Viral AI startup Instinct has raised $350M at a $2.5B valuation Lucas Ropek Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, an LTE health and safety band Aisha Malik
Source: techcrunch
