In a world where video content dominates the digital landscape—from social media feeds to streaming platforms—the challenge of efficiently producing high-quality videos at scale has become increasingly pressing.
Enter Aive, a French startup that's using artificial intelligence to transform how brands and media companies handle video post-production.
A New Approach to Video AI
Aive's core innovation lies in its proprietary MGT (Multimodal Generative Technology) system, which takes a fundamentally different approach to video processing. Rather than simply generating video content like many generative AI tools, Aive transforms existing videos into structured data that can be analyzed, modified, and optimized.
"We are the only company to have this approach globally," said Olivier Reynaud, CEO and co-founder of Aive. "We are the only company to have this data."
The company's technology combines more than 20 open-source models with dozens of custom algorithms to analyze videos with remarkable precision. Unlike many generative AI solutions that might "hallucinate" or produce inaccurate content, Aive deploys specialized AI models for each creative aspect of a video—from dialog analysis to visual elements like scenes, people, branding, and framing.
Reynaud argues that pure generative AI isn't adequate for brand or commercial applications
"When it's a generalization, it hallucinates a result," he said. "If you work on a very accurate, sensitive project, medicine or video branding, video for brand, etc, it has to be very accurate and pixel perfect."
A Hybrid AI Approach
What makes Aive's approach distinctive is how it combines analytical AI with generative capabilities. The system first uses multiple AI models to extract comprehensive data from videos, then employs generative AI for specific tasks like summarization, reformatting, or adaptation.
Recently, Aive announced a technical collaboration with Meta, integrating llama (Meta's large language model) for specific natural language processing tasks.
"We constantly evaluate and update our model regarding the state of the art," said Reynaud. "It's like if you create a rocket ship, you have to use the best technology available today."
From Business Need to Market Solution
Aive emerged from a real-world problem faced by its founders. Reynaud, a marketing expert and creative, previously co-founded Teads (a global leader in video advertising), where he encountered the challenges of video production firsthand. Every month, his team had to create, format, and personalize hundreds of videos—a labor-intensive process.
Similarly, Rudy Lellouche, Aive's COO-CTO and co-founder, experienced comparable difficulties while working as a technology manager at Adyoulike, particularly when transforming videos into "native ad" formats.
Recognizing a significant gap in the market, the two founded Aive in 2019. With their complementary backgrounds—Reynaud in marketing and Lellouche in engineering—they set out to build a "no-code" collaborative platform that could automate the video post-production process.
Automated Post-Production at Scale
Aive's platform enables users to automatically adapt videos for different platforms, formats, and purposes. For example, a single video can be instantly transformed into a vertical 15-second clip for TikTok or optimized for Meta or Pinterest—all while maintaining professional quality and brand consistency.
The system also incorporates a "Creative Score" that evaluates and optimizes video performance for each platform. For enterprises, this means significant time and cost savings while maintaining control over quality and brand coherence.
"We are not here to generate new content," Reynaud said. "We are in post-production. We take existing content, we adapt it to all other versioning, adaptation, a format adaptation."
The impact is substantial: Aive claims its solution makes video post-production 100 times faster, resulting in considerable cost savings and a "tenfold increase in creative power and productivity."
Since its beta launch in 2021, Aive has attracted an impressive roster of clients, including major brands like L'Oréal, Club Med, Nissan, Monoprix, and the unicorn startup Swile. In September 2024, the company announced it had partnered with Meetic, a leading European online dating service.
For Meetic, which produces hundreds of videos monthly across multiple European markets and brands, Aive's solution significantly reduces production costs and timelines while maintaining brand consistency.
Fundraising
Aive closed a seed round of over €3 million in 2022 with what Reynaud calls a "dream team" of French and American angel investors. This followed an earlier pre-seed round in 2019 and 2020.
The company's backers include notable figures like Pauline Duval (CEO of Groupe Duval), Renaud Visage (Eventbrite), Jon Oringer (founder of Shutterstock), and investors from companies like PeopleDoc, Hugging Face, Talentsoft, and Back Market. Sequoia Capital has also invested through its Scout Program.
Combined with support from Bpifrance, la Région Occitanie, and French Tech, Aive's total financing reached €7 million by 2022.
Scaling Strategy and Future Vision
Aive has focused on accelerating commercialization and product development. The company expanded from around 15 employees in 2022 with plans to double its workforce, recruiting data scientists, IT specialists, and building its sales team in Paris.
While initially focusing on the French market, Aive designed its platform for international scalability from the start. The solution supports remote video collaboration between teams across different countries and languages.
In October 2024, Reynaud announced continued international expansion, particularly in the US, where the company is signing new contracts with American brands and agencies.
Looking further ahead, Aive aims to expand into broadcasting in 2025, leveraging the founders' previous experience in that sector. The company is developing an AI system that will automatically select the right classified content to broadcast to specific audiences based on performance metrics, Reynaud said.
Challenges in a Competitive Landscape
Aive faces challenges in a rapidly evolving AI landscape. The company must continuously evaluate and integrate new AI models to stay competitive, a process Reynaud acknowledges is resource-intensive but essential.
Additionally, while Aive has positioned itself as an enterprise solution that prioritizes accuracy and security for brands, it must continue to differentiate from the growing number of generative AI video tools that appeal to broader markets.
Still, Reynaud is confident that Aive can capitalize on its early start and enterprise focus.
"We created an AI product years before the current AI wave," he said. "We are an enterprise-ready solution and not something in the lab."
