V
VideoSurf
VideoSurf, a video discovery company, combines social insights with computer vision technology to search and identify videos on any device
About VideoSurf
VideoSurf, established in 2006, operated as a video discovery platform engineered to enhance how users find and engage with online video content. The company was founded by Lior Delgo, Achi Brandt, Eitan Sharon, and Shai Deljo. Lior Delgo, who served as CEO, was a serial entrepreneur, having previously co-founded the travel search engine FareChase, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2004. This background in building and exiting search-related technology ventures provided a solid foundation for VideoSurf's strategic direction.
The core of VideoSurf's offering was a computer vision technology that analyzed content within video files, frame by frame. Unlike conventional video search engines that relied on text-based metadata and tags, VideoSurf's system could visually identify people and specific moments inside the videos themselves. This approach allowed for more relevant and precise search results, enabling users to pinpoint the exact content they were looking for across a multitude of video-hosting sites like YouTube, Hulu, and Dailymotion. The platform indexed billions of visual moments, offering a fundamentally different and more granular search experience.
The company's business model focused on providing this advanced search capability directly to consumers through its website and also likely through partnerships with content providers who could leverage the technology to increase discoverability. By 2011, the platform claimed to attract 20 million unique monthly visitors. VideoSurf secured a total of $28 million in funding from investors, including notable figures such as Al Gore and Sheryl Sandberg, as well as venture capital firms like Pitango Venture Capital and Verizon Ventures. In November 2011, Microsoft acquired VideoSurf for a reported $70 million. The primary objective of the acquisition was to integrate VideoSurf's visual search technology into the Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE ecosystem, aiming to improve content discovery and power voice search features for the entertainment platform.
Source: Dealroom company dataKnowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACQUISITION✓Exit | Nov 2011 | $100M | $100M | Microsoft | — |
| LATE VC✓Equity / VC | Apr 2011 | $16M | $64M | David Fischer · Jeff Martin · Pitango Venture Capital · Dave Goldberg | — |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for VideoSurf is 640 monthly website visits, down 41.8% over the last three months. VideoSurf's team grew 0% over the past year.
Similar companies
Company identity and context are open; selected comparison metrics preview what is available on the platform.
Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series B and later8 investors entered at this stage
David Fischer- JMJeff Martin
Pitango Venture Capital
Dave Goldberg
Al Gore
Sheryl Sandberg
Hanan Gilutz
Prof. Yechiam Yemini
Other known investors2 additional known investors
Microsoft
Verizon Ventures
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about VideoSurf on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
See VideoSurf’s full profile on Dealroom
Request a free trial to see the complete deal history, financials, people graph and growth signals.
Takes under a minute. Already use Dealroom? Log in.