Clouted, a startup that participated in a16z's Speedrun accelerator program in 2024, has secured $7 million in seed funding to solve a major pain point in social media marketing. The round was led by Slow Ventures, with contributions from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, Peak XV's Surge, and other investors. The company is building infrastructure to automate both the creation and distribution of short video clips—commonly called "clipping"—which brands increasingly rely on to market products across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The core problem Clouted addresses is operational complexity. Brands and marketing agencies typically hire independent creators to extract the most compelling 30 to 90-second segments from longer videos, but managing these gig workers and figuring out where to distribute the content across multiple platforms creates significant logistical challenges. Clouted connects brands with a network of over 100,000 gig creators who handle the editing work, while its AI system determines optimal distribution strategies and target audiences for each clip.
Co-founder and CEO Justin Banusing initially developed the technology to promote his own venture: the Manila-based &Friends electronic dance music and pop-culture festival, which now attracts over 20,000 attendees. Drawing from his background as a DJ, Banusing applied Clouted's approach to grow the festival's social media presence before expanding it into a commercial product.
Rather than simply maximizing clip volume, Clouted's AI runs continuous testing cycles, experimenting with various formats and distribution methods to identify what actually drives viral engagement. Banusing describes it as "penetration testing for social media algorithms"—a concept borrowed from cybersecurity where systems are stress-tested to find vulnerabilities. In this case, the platform and its creator network systematically probe different approaches to determine which combinations trigger viral reach. The key differentiator is that every campaign generates data that improves subsequent ones, as the system learns which formats, audiences, and channels deliver the best results.