Israeli app developer cuts 12% of its workforce to focus on AI tools to create movies
Lightricks, the Israeli startup behind Facetune and Photoleap, will lay off 70 employees; says it seeks to hire dozens of AI experts mainly in Israel
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Lightricks, a Jerusalem-based software startup that makes photo- and video-editing apps, is cutting 70 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce, as part of a reorganization to shift its focus to the development of generative AI-based features and tools.
Founded in 2013, Lightricks is headquartered in Jerusalem and employs 600 people, with 500 based in Israel and the remainder at its offices in the UK, the US, and China. The Israeli unicorn did not specify how many jobs would be affected in Israel but said that the layoffs will mainly impact overhead at its consumer applications division and operations that did not meet “growth targets.”
“This is part of an organizational change to direct most of resources to the development and marketing of generative AI-based B2B products,” Lightricks said in an emailed statement. “The company plans to hire dozens of new AI experts, with a main emphasis on recruiting employees in Israel.”
Lightricks was founded by CEO Zeev Farbman, Nir Pochter, Yaron Inger, Amit Goldstein, Itai Tsiddon, almost all of whom have a computer science or artificial intelligence background. The company initially developed a number of photo- and video-editing consumer-focused tools that are widely popular with content creators on social media networks, especially Instagram, the highly visual content platform owned by Facebook.
Its suite of apps, which includes Facetune, Facetune Video, and Videoleap, has over 730 million downloads worldwide and more than 6.6 million monthly subscribers, Lightricks has said on its website.
With the rapid advancements of AI, Lightricks in February announced the launch of LTX Studio, a generative AI-driven editing platform for video production and filmmaking. The web-based platform is geared to help filmmakers, advertising and marketing agencies, and content creators visualize stories and streamline the entire video production process, from scripting to editing, in a single interface.
Lightricks said it will “continue to develop the Facetune application and will work to promote and deepen the integration of AI capabilities into the apps.”
To date, Lightricks has raised a total of $335 million from investors including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Insight Partners, Greycroft, ClalTech, and Viola Ventures. At its most recent funding round in 2021, the firm nabbed $130 million at a company valuation of $1.8 billion.
