Stability AI acquires image editing app Clipdrop Developer Init ML

Synthetic media startup Stability AI has acquired Init ML, the developer behind popular generative AI image creation and editing service Clipdrop, for an undisclosed price. Stabilitás, known for its open-source text-to-image model Stable Diffusion, plans to integrate its technology into Clipdrop’s platform and strengthen its ambitions in the generative AI market.

Clipdrop Stability

Clipdrop uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide advanced image manipulation tools on Windows and Mac computers, iOS and Android mobile apps, and as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in. Users can clean up the photo by removing extraneous objects and text, or simply isolate and export the subject of the image. AI can also adjust the lighting, or “fix” the blown-up part of the picture, as so many TV shows have imagined. Clipdrop adds a Stable Diffusion-based text-to-image generator to its toolkit for wholesale AI visual production, at least for the beta version of the app.

The acquisition is likely to accelerate and deepen this relationship, as Stability absorbs Init ML and its team as a subsidiary brand and rebrands its flagship as “Clipdrop by Stability AI.” Init ML says Clipdrop has amassed more than 15 million users since the company launched in July 2020 and has raised about $1.26 million in a 2021 seed funding round.

“Init ML’s support for stability AI reinforces our efforts to create world-class, simple and elegant products with state-of-the-art multimodal generative AI models,” said Cyril Diagne, CEO of Init ML, who now serves as Vice President. innovation in Clipdrop at Stability. “I’m proud to announce that the Clipdrop team is now working with the researchers at Stability AI to bring exciting improvements to the Clipdrop product line and will soon launch new ones.”

Diffusion acquisition

Clipdrop is Stabilitá’s first acquisition, the purchase was made possible by the $101 million that Stabilitá collected last year in a financing round led by Lightspeed Venture. The company’s ambitions do not appear to have been deterred by recent legal complaints. Stability has been accused of allegedly violating copyright and other intellectual property laws by organizations such as Getty Images and a class action lawsuit filed by a group of California artists. Still, Stable Diffusion is growing rapidly, with an estimated daily user base of more than 10 million, even a few months after its launch in August.

“We’re excited to integrate the latest and upcoming Stability AI models into the Clipdrop platform, making our technology easily accessible to creators everywhere,” said Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI. “This acquisition provides Clipdrop with the resources it needs to drive the next era of generative AI, marking a new milestone in our shared journey to democratize the power of AI and multimodal base models in creative workflows.”

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