Tella, a screen recording and video storytelling platform, has raised $2.1M in seed funding led by Gradient, with participation from AltaIR Capital, Mento VC, Lobster Capital, The Singularity Fund, and angel investors. This follows a previously raised $1.4M from Y Combinator, Liquid 2, and Gradient.
Tella's product is more powerful than standard screen recording software, but much simpler to use than traditional video editing software. Designed for entrepreneurs, Tella turns quick screen recordings into high-quality, professional videos used for marketing and education. With Tella, users can quickly create polished demos, tutorials, presentations and online courses.
Most video creation tools have to make a compromise. They can support high-production video, but sacrifice a fast, efficient workflow. If they can offer a fast workflow, then it usually comes at the cost of production value and creativity. Tella doesn’t make this compromise. To solve this problem Tella built its own rendering engine, capable of producing high-quality video, of any duration — instantly. This means publishing a 10 minute-long video takes a little over 10 minutes, or about the same time as it takes to record. For conventional video editing software it can take 30 minutes or more to record, edit and publish a 10 minute-long video to the web.
“Screen recording started as a tool for quick, low-stakes communication to give simple explanations or quick feedback. But what we’ve seen is a shift toward much more high-impact use cases. Today, screen recordings are the foundation of marketing content for all software and software-adjacent businesses. Customers now need tools that go beyond basic recordings. They need more professional, polished video creation that they can create as easy as writing an email. That’s exactly what we’re building with Tella,” said Grant Shaddick, Co-founder & CEO at Tella.
Tella's product is more powerful than standard screen recording software, but much simpler to use than traditional video editing software. Designed for entrepreneurs, Tella turns quick screen recordings into high-quality, professional videos used for marketing and education. With Tella, users can quickly create polished demos, tutorials, presentations and online courses.
Most video creation tools have to make a compromise. They can support high-production video, but sacrifice a fast, efficient workflow. If they can offer a fast workflow, then it usually comes at the cost of production value and creativity. Tella doesn’t make this compromise. To solve this problem Tella built its own rendering engine, capable of producing high-quality video, of any duration — instantly. This means publishing a 10 minute-long video takes a little over 10 minutes, or about the same time as it takes to record. For conventional video editing software it can take 30 minutes or more to record, edit and publish a 10 minute-long video to the web.
“Screen recording started as a tool for quick, low-stakes communication to give simple explanations or quick feedback. But what we’ve seen is a shift toward much more high-impact use cases. Today, screen recordings are the foundation of marketing content for all software and software-adjacent businesses. Customers now need tools that go beyond basic recordings. They need more professional, polished video creation that they can create as easy as writing an email. That’s exactly what we’re building with Tella,” said Grant Shaddick, Co-founder & CEO at Tella.
Why we invested
“Tella is a versatile tool for quickly creating professional-looking videos, ideal for tutorials, product demos, customer support, and beyond. Their fast growth, sharp user focus, and passion for their own product convinced us that Tella's approach to innovation is poised to lead the next generation of video tools,” said Igor Ryabenkiy, Founder and Managing Partner at AltaIR Capital.
Tella has already gained traction among leading startups and enterprises, including Pleo and ChartHop. With this funding, Tella is expanding its team and investing in growth. It’s also developing its AI editing feature. Users won’t need to spend time making edits themselves, instead Tella will automatically remove mistakes, apply effects and shot changes, add branding and more. Tella’s AI editor will be launching later this year.
“Tella's completely changed the way I share ChartHop's product releases, both externally and internally. It's fast, efficient and easy for me to fire up Tella's desktop app, record a quick demo, and turn it into a high quality video that I can share on LinkedIn. And since the underlying assets are all saved, our marketing team can remix and repurpose my videos for lots of different channels. It's become a key part of our content strategy,” said Ian White, the founder and CEO of ChartHop.
Tella has already gained traction among leading startups and enterprises, including Pleo and ChartHop. With this funding, Tella is expanding its team and investing in growth. It’s also developing its AI editing feature. Users won’t need to spend time making edits themselves, instead Tella will automatically remove mistakes, apply effects and shot changes, add branding and more. Tella’s AI editor will be launching later this year.
“Tella's completely changed the way I share ChartHop's product releases, both externally and internally. It's fast, efficient and easy for me to fire up Tella's desktop app, record a quick demo, and turn it into a high quality video that I can share on LinkedIn. And since the underlying assets are all saved, our marketing team can remix and repurpose my videos for lots of different channels. It's become a key part of our content strategy,” said Ian White, the founder and CEO of ChartHop.
The Team Behind Tella
The company was founded by Grant Shaddick and Michiel Westerbeek, former InVision employees. At InVision (a fully remote company even before the COVID-19 pandemic), they saw the potential of video. This experience inspired them to create Tella, a platform designed to bridge the gap between basic screen recording and high-quality production, making professional video storytelling accessible to everyone.
For more information, visit tella.com.
For more information, visit tella.com.