KLIPY raises $3.8 million, joins Google’s AI Futures Fund to build the AI-powered expression layer

Text is no longer the dominant language of the internet. Memes, GIFs, stickers, and short video clips have become a primary way people communicate online, especially among younger users. AI is pouring fuel on that trend, turning millions of consumers into creators.

A growing number of apps now face the same question: how do they manage, distribute, and monetize all that content?

KLIPY is betting it can provide the infrastructure. Today, the startup announced that it has raised $3.8 million in funding and joined Google’s AI Futures Fund as it builds an API platform for expressive media and AI-powered content.

The company sits behind some of the tools consumers use every day to communicate visually online. Its APIs allow developers to integrate GIFs, stickers, clips, memes, and AI-generated content into apps and platforms. According to KLIPY, nearly 10,000 developers and 40,000 creators use its technology, which processes billions of API requests each week.

KLIPY’s customers include consumer and creative platforms such as BeReal, Baidu, Canva, Figma, and Microsoft SwiftKey. The company sees a growing opportunity as social apps, productivity tools, and AI products increasingly rely on visual communication rather than plain text.

Google-backed KLIPY raises $3.8 million to become the AI expression layer for memes, GIFs, and creators

The funding round included participation from Google’s AI Futures Fund, I2BF, Silvercircle VC, Sturgeon Capital, Red Swan Ventures, Intuition Ventures, Capra Ventures founder Yash Patel, and former Golden State Warriors player and two-time NBA champion Zaza Pachulia.

KLIPY was founded by serial entrepreneurs Givi Beridze, Frank Nawabi, and Waska Chaduneli. The team brings significant experience in digital media infrastructure. Nawabi previously founded Tenor, the GIF-sharing platform that Google acquired in 2018. Tenor grew into one of the largest GIF platforms in the world, serving more than a billion users.

“People are expressing themselves through memes, GIFs, and short-form content more than ever, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” said KLIPY co-founder and CEO Givi Beridze. “This explosion in visual communication is only accelerating now that AI makes expression so quick and easy.”

Klipy (Image credit: Klipy)

“While internet culture moves at lightning speed, memes, for example, possess surprising staying power,” Beridze continued. “They take on cultural meaning, and brands are realizing that they are an authentic way to join the conversation and keep their franchises relevant.”

The company’s ambitions extend beyond content discovery and creation. KLIPY is building tools that allow creators, brands, and rights holders to distribute, manage, and monetize expressive media across multiple platforms. That includes contextual advertising products intended to create new revenue opportunities for partner apps without sacrificing control over content or user privacy.

“At Tenor, we created the largest GIF-sharing platform and pioneered the very first sponsored GIF,” said KLIPY co-founder and board member Frank Nawabi. “Now, KLIPY is building a next-generation ‘expression layer’ for the AI era that combines search, AI, and monetization into a unified API platform, with tools for content rights holders and creators to distribute and manage short-form media at scale.”

The startup’s momentum comes as AI changes how content is produced and consumed across the internet. Users are no longer limited to searching for existing images, videos, or GIFs. Increasingly, they are generating personalized content on demand, creating new challenges around distribution, discovery, rights management, and monetization.

That trend caught the attention of Google’s AI Futures Fund.

“The way people communicate online is changing rapidly, driven by AI,” said Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of Google’s AI Futures Fund. “Increasingly, people want to be active co-creators of content, not passive consumers. KLIPY is building the intelligent, trusted expression layer that the next generation of apps will rely on, and we’re thrilled to back a team that deeply understands this space at scale.”

For KLIPY, the new funding will be used to hire across product, engineering, and go-to-market functions, expand distribution across more platforms, and develop new tools for creators and content studios.

“BeReal is all about authentic expression, and KLIPY helps our users express themselves in fun, engaging, and creative ways,” said Jérémie Colin of BeReal. “Their platform is purpose-built for the next generation of social connection, and the migration was quick and easy.”

The larger bet is that memes, GIFs, stickers, and AI-generated media are becoming a core part of digital communication rather than a side feature. If that shift continues, the infrastructure that helps apps manage and monetize expression could become as important as the messaging platforms themselves.

Klipy Team