Tella raises $2.1M for AI-powered video creation

Dutch-founded screen recording startup Tella has secured $2.1M in Seed funding for its video communication tools. The round was led by Gradient Ventures with participation from AltaIR Capital, Mento VC, Lobster Capital, The Singularity Fund, and several angel investors. It adds to a previous $1.4M round that included Y Combinator, Liquid 2, and Gradient.

Tella aims to bridge the gap between user-friendly screen recording tools and complex, traditional video editing software. Its platform allows users – particularly entrepreneurs and educators – to create professional-grade videos with minimal effort, producing demos, tutorials, and presentations that would typically require more time and technical skill.

A major part of this functionality is Tella’s custom-built video rendering engine, designed to output high-quality videos instantly after recording. This eliminates one of the most significant bottlenecks in conventional workflows: the long editing and publishing process.

As part of its next growth phase, Tella plans to expand its team and integrate AI into its platform, enabling automatic editing, mistake removal, effect application, and branding. The AI-powered editor is slated for release later in 2025, further positioning Tella as a future-forward tool in an increasingly AI-driven software landscape.

The screen recording and video messaging sector has seen a resurgence since Atlassian acquired Loom for $975M in 2023. Tella is among a new generation of startups, including Supercut, Screen Studio, and Rally.

“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 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 already counts fast-growing companies such as Pleo and ChartHop among its users. 

“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.