Givit makes iOS video editing smarter and easier than iMovie

If editing a video on your iPhone is too arduous with Apple’s iMovie (you know who you are), then Givit wants to be your video-editing app of choice.

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Givit’s app for iPhone lets you tap the screen while recording a video or watching a video to create a series of short clips. These “highlights” ideally create a much better video for sharing than the original long video.

“”People don’t have time to use iMovie,” Givit CEO Greg Kostello told me. “This interface lets anyone capture important moments and share them easily.”

On top of making it easier to edit your video down, Givit also lets you add motion effects, music, and transitions to spice up your video reel. After making all the adjustments you’d like, you can share your creation through Facebook, YouTube, or email.

Unlike products like Viddy or Socialcam, Givit doesn’t limit how many highlights you can combine or how long your video can be. (Although, for the sake of sharing with friends and family, I’d recommend not making it longer than a few minutes.)

Kostello also differentiates his app from automated video editing app Magisto by saying that Magisto doesn’t let you pick the best clips but tries to guess. “You know what’s good in your video,” Kostello said.

“I liked them, I downloaded it while they were doing their DEMO,” said Jay Goldberg of ThinkEquity at the DEMO Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. “We need very easy, very drop dead stupid, intuitive UI to edit video.”

The company makes its money by offering online cloud storage for your edited videos. Givit users start with 5GB of free storage, while 100GB of storage runs $30 a year.

“By simplifying the creation process, we make video editing available to everyone,” said Kostello at the DEMO Conference in Santa Clara, Calif.

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Givit parent company VMIX, which is based in San Diego, has raised $2.5 million from JK&B Capital and ATA ventures to launch Givit as a commercial product. This brings VMIX’s total funding to $26.9 million.

Givit is one of 75 companies and 6 student “alpha” startups chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2012 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After we make our selections, the chosen companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Photo credit: Givit; Demo photo via Stephen Brashear