Ex-Microsoft Employees Secure $4M to Transform Product Video Creation with AI

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Creating professional videos can be a challenging task, especially for businesses that often have many screen recordings and screenshots that go unused. To address this issue, two former Microsoft employees, Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta, founded Lica in 2023. 

This innovative AI tool helps users easily create tutorials and product videos from their existing screen content.

The Founders of Lica

Priyaa Kalyanaraman has a strong background as a product manager at Microsoft, Snap, and Waymo. She worked on integrating AI into tools like PowerPoint and Microsoft Designer

Purvanshi Mehta, also a former Microsoft employee, specialized in data science and content personalization. Their shared vision was to create a user-friendly video storytelling tool that would be accessible to everyone.

How Lica Started

Kalyanaraman’s journey began during a hackathon, where she developed a demo that attracted the attention of Replit CEO Amjad Masad. Mehta was simultaneously exploring personalized content tools. A mutual friend introduced them, leading to the creation of Lica.

Lica has successfully secured $4 million in a seed funding round, led by Accel. Other investors include South Park Commons, Village Global, and notable individuals like Replit CEO Amjad Masad and former a16z partner Balaji Srinivasan.

Aditya Agarwal from South Park Commons highlighted that people typically use documents and slides to share ideas, as video production has been costly and time-consuming. He believes Lica effectively addresses this issue, making video creation more accessible for both internal and external communications.

Why Lica is Important

Creating professional videos has traditionally been costly and time-consuming. Many businesses relied on external agencies for video production, which was often not feasible for internal communications. 

Lica aims to fill this gap by providing a streamlined process powered by advanced AI technology.

What Lica Does

Lica transforms screenshots and screen recordings into polished explainer or tutorial videos with several key features:

  • Automatic Video Creation: Converts screen recordings into videos with transitions, background music, and effects.
  • Customizable Narration: Users can guide the AI to create videos in specific styles, such as “Make a Gen Z-styled tutorial video.”
  • Editing Flexibility: After generating a video, users can adjust elements like voiceover tone, captions, language, style, and music.

The Technology Behind Lica

Lica utilizes various AI models to achieve its results:

  • Orchestration Models: These models assemble different components of the video.
  • Design Models: Ensure that the final product looks good, even with unusual design choices.
  • Hybrid AI Models: A mix of open-source and proprietary tools for tasks like audio generation.

Pricing Structure

Lica offers two pricing tiers:

  • Free Tier: Create up to 10 videos (3 minutes each) with three downloads per month.
  • Premium Tier ($49/month): Unlimited videos up to 10 minutes long, access to branded templates, and ten downloads monthly.

Future Plans for Lica

While Lica currently focuses on product and tutorial videos, the founders plan to expand its capabilities for other types of videos in the future. This includes:

  • Marketing videos
  • Social media content
  • Investor pitches

Conclusion

In conclusion, Lica is set to become an essential tool for anyone looking to enhance their video content creation process. With its innovative features and strong backing from investors, it is poised to make video production easier for everyone. For more information about Lica or to start using it today.

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