Draft:Valossa

Dr. Mika Rautiainen, a computer vision and AI expert, is the CEO of Valossa since 2015. Mika Rautiainen is also one of the founders of the company, and an alumni of the University of Oulu. His academic research history is concentrated on content-based and semantics-based media browsing systems and multimedia retrieval systems, involving algorithms and databases for video, image, audio and text content.{{Cite web|url=https://oulu.academia.edu/MikaRautiainen|title=Mika Rautiainen - University of Oulu - Academia.edu}}

One of the founders of Valossa was Harri Pesola, who also was a founder and executive director in the floor-plan sketching automation company CubiCasa that was sold{{Cite web|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clear-capital-completes-acquisition-cubicasa-130000918.html|title=Clear Capital Completes Acquisition of CubiCasa}} in 2021 to the American firm Clear Capital, a national real estate valuation technology company.

In the early years, the CCO of the company was Ville Hulkko, who is also a co-founder in Silo AI, a Finnish AI company that was acquired{{Cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/amd-acquire-finnish-startup-silo-ai-665-mln-step-up-ai-race-2024-07-10/|title=AMD to acquire Finnish startup Silo AI for $665 mln to step up in AI race}} in 2024 for 665 million USD by the American semiconductor company AMD.

At the time of the founding, worldwide video production and consumption were growing exponentially. The need to tackle the challenge of comprehensive, automated understanding of this unstructured multimedia content, at scale, was becoming evident.

Articles in industrial and economic publications identified Valossa as an early mover in the lucrative video AI business and highlighted the ability of Valossa technology to “watch” videos in order to understand the content in an automated manner.{{Cite news|url=https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/tekoaly-oppi-nakemaan-kuten-ihminen/507281ab-520b-3d8c-8b6b-d815aee43923|language=fi|title=Tekoäly oppi näkemään kuten ihminen}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/tekoaly-nakee-ja-ymmartaa-jo-videoita-oululainen-valossa-sai-sijoittajaksi-supercellin-enkelin/c8e4338f-50a1-3b29-b7f7-0d9f13af1c57|language=fi|title=Tekoäly näkee ja ymmärtää jo videoita – Oululainen Valossa sai sijoittajaksi Supercellin enkelin}}

According to a report from 2016 TechCrunch San Francisco, Valossa in the event showcased a video analysis platform for the recognition of faces, emotional facial expressions, heartbeat (visually from a human face) and various visual objects and scenes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLO3N0pC0gY|title=Valossa recognizes faces and expressions so you don't have to}} In 2016, Valossa also launched a consumer-oriented descriptive search engine for movies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/valossa-secures-funding-for-real-time-ai-powered-video-search-technology/|title=Valossa secures funding for real time, AI powered video search technology}} The movie search engine site garnered positive reviews from a number of media outlets and hobbyist sites.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/03/21/what-is-my-movie-an-effective-way-to-find-out/|title=What is my movie? a cool new movie search}}{{Cite web|url=https://northernforum.net/struggling-to-remember-a-movie-title-this-website-can-find-it-instantly/|title=Struggling to Remember a Movie Title ? This Website Can Find It Instantly}}

In 2017, it was in the business news that an angel investor known from the Finnish multi-billion-dollar mobile game company Supercell participated in the funding of Valossa.{{Cite news|url=https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/tekoaly-nakee-ja-ymmartaa-jo-videoita-oululainen-valossa-sai-sijoittajaksi-supercellin-enkelin/c8e4338f-50a1-3b29-b7f7-0d9f13af1c57|language=fi|title=Tekoäly näkee ja ymmärtää jo videoita – Oululainen Valossa sai sijoittajaksi Supercellin enkelin}}

In 2018, Valossa won the first place in the Media Honeypot 2018 Pitching Competition organized as part of a media startup business event.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chrispfafftechmedia.com/tag/valossa/|title=Valossa Archives|date=February 19, 2018|website=Chris Pfaff Tech Media}}

In 2024, Valossa received a grant for the research and development work towards an AI tool targeted to fit the needs of the video production industry.{{Cite web|url=https://valossa.com/2024/06/finnish-centre-for-economic-development-transport-and-the-environment-supports-novel-innovations-to-automate-video-production/|title=Finnish Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment Supports Novel Innovations to Automate Video Production - Valossa - Video Image Speech and Audio Recognition AI|date=June 10, 2024}}

In 2025, Valossa was ranked #13 on a list of 83 top Finnish AI companies and startups as curated by the UK-based startup community hub F6S.{{Cite web|url=https://www.f6s.com/companies/artificial-intelligence/finland/co|title=83 top AI (Artificial Intelligence) companies and startups in Finland in March 2025}}

As of 2025, the company continues to provide video AI centric products and software development services. The application cases listed on the company website include, among others, the creation of audiovisual transcripts and translations, video summarization and categorization systems, ad placement, brand-safety protection and the automatic clipping of teaser videos from longer-form content.{{Cite web|url=https://valossa.com/|title=AI Video Analysis - Transcribe Video to Text Metadata, Captions & Clips}}

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:Category:Artificial intelligence companies