TwelveLabs, a startup specializing in multimodal AI models, has secured $30 million in new funding to scale its video-first intelligence platform. The investment, which brings the company’s total capital raised to $107.1 million, will fuel product development and aggressive global expansion. Backed by industry titans including Nvidia, Samsung, Intel, Databricks, and Snowflake, TwelveLabs is positioning itself as the leader in making video archives searchable, actionable, and data-intelligent.
Beyond Keyword Search: Understanding Video Content
Traditional video search relies on metadata like titles and tags, which often fail to capture the actual content of a clip. Jae Lee, co-founder and CEO, emphasizes that video is the fastest-growing medium, yet remains largely inaccessible to automated data processing. TwelveLabs solves this by training models to map text to complex visual and auditory occurrences—including specific objects, actions, and background sounds.
Unlike general-purpose models from tech giants that treat video as an add-on, TwelveLabs focuses exclusively on video. This “video-first” architecture allows for highly customized applications, enabling users to perform tasks such as content moderation, automated highlight generation, and precise ad insertion.
Multimodal Capabilities and Market Expansion
The company’s portfolio has evolved beyond simple search. Its core model, Marengo, facilitates “any-to-any” search, allowing users to query video databases using reference audio, images, or other video clips. Additionally, the company offers an Embed API that creates mathematical representations of data, enabling organizations to detect anomalies and identify relationships across diverse media formats.
Currently, over 30,000 developers utilize the platform. Strategic partnerships are central to this growth: Databricks has integrated TwelveLabs into its data pipelines, while Snowflake is incorporating the technology into its Cortex AI service. Furthermore, the company is collaborating with municipalities on critical use cases, including traffic management and real-time threat detection.
Addressing Ethical AI and Future Leadership
As the company expands into sensitive sectors like security and defense, concerns regarding model bias remain a priority. Lee maintains that all models undergo rigorous bias testing prior to release. While formal external benchmarks are still in development, the company is committed to creating standards that ensure technological change remains responsible and respectful of civil liberties.
To support its next phase of growth, TwelveLabs has appointed Yoon Kim—a former CTO of SK Telecom and a key architect behind Apple’s Siri—as President and Chief Strategy Officer. Operating between San Francisco and Seoul, Kim will oversee global expansion and potential strategic acquisitions as the company targets new verticals, including the automotive and defense sectors.