Pinterest Buys Belarus-Based Video Creation App ‘Vochi’

Pinterest has acquired content creation and editing app Vochi amid its ongoing push into the video industry.

The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and Vochi will continue to operate as a standalone app for the time being. Pinterest says it will work with Vochi to develop new creator tools.

“Our vision is to create a place where Pinners can go from inspiration to realization, and having more creator tools can help us further this vision,” Bin Liu, Pinterest’s head of creators engineering, said in a statement. “We’re excited to work with Vochi’s talented team to bring more video creation tools and quality content to our more than 400 million Pinners around the world.”

Belarus-based Vochi was founded in 2019 by Ilya Lesun (who serves as CEO), Anna Buglakova

(who serves as chief product officer), Vasily Kasnitsky, and Sergey Malyutin. Prior to its acquisition, the company had raised roughly $4.4 million in seed funding from entrepreneur Luba Pashkovskaya, BRISE Capital, and others.

The app uses A.I. technology to provide inpainting (to decrease the transparency of an object or delete it), 3D effects, and a particle-physics engine that can add details to a video, like sparks or bubbles.

In October, Pinterest hired YouTube veteran Malik Ducard to serve as its first chief content officer, and develop a creator economy strategy for the company. Last month, the company unveiled Pinterest TV — a slate of influencer-fronted, shoppable video series from Manny MUA, Tom Daley, and more.