Observed Signal · Apr 23, 2026 · Funding · Source: techcrunch · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Shade raises $14M for plain-English video search
Shade, a New York startup founded in 2024, raised $14 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital and Bling Capital, bringing its total funding to $20 million. The company builds a cloud storage and collaboration platform for creative teams that combines natural-language search (with auto-tagging, transcription and facial recognition) and a "streamable" filesystem that lets users mount cloud storage to local drives and begin editing before full downloads complete. Shade provides timestamped search results that locate exact moments within video files and supports timestamped feedback and permissioned link sharing. The company offers a $20/seat/month plan with unlimited drives, unlimited AI indexing and 500GB active storage per seat. Shade competes with startups such as Poly and Memories.ai and plans to expand multi-file-type search and no-code workflow automation.
Startup funding and product updates in AI-driven digital asset management are relevant to creative workflow and MarTech stacks but do not represent a major platform policy or industry-shifting event.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Shade closed $14 million in a funding round in March led by Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital, and Bling Capital.
- The startup has raised $20 million in total to date.
- Shade was founded in 2024 by CEO Brandon Fan and CTO Emerson Dove.
- Product features include natural-language auto-tagging search that returns exact timestamps in videos, automatic transcription, facial recognition, and a 'streamable' filesystem to mount cloud storage to local drives.
- Shade offers a $20 per seat per month plan with unlimited drives, unlimited AI indexing, 500GB active storage per seat, up to 15 seats per workspace and up to 150 guests.
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ShengShu Launches Vidu Q3 Reference-to-Video
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TwelveLabs Raises $100M Series B for Video Superintelligence
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VideoGen Raises $3.3M Seed, Passes 5 Million Users
AI video platform VideoGen announced a $3.3 million seed funding round, bringing its total user base to over 5 million across 190 countries. The company, founded in 2023, bootstrapped initially before joining Y Combinator in summer 2024. The platform enables users to create fully editable, copyright-free videos through structured workflows and AI agents. It offers features like AI voiceovers in 50+ languages, one-click translation, and a Text-to-Video API for developers. The funding round includes participation from Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Lobster Capital, and others. The new capital will be used to scale the team and grow the brand.
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