Why VSCO Is Acquiring 360 Camera Company Rylo

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 10, 2019
  • VSCO announced that it is buying Rylo, a company that is known for building a compact camera with powerful video stabilization technology

Photo editing app company VSCO announced that it is buying Rylo — which is known for building a compact camera with powerful video stabilization technology. As part of the deal, VSCO is going to double down on its commitment to video and will accelerate the delivery of video editing features.

“In just the past year, we’ve seen video editing double on VSCO, and DSCO our GIF creation tool remains one of our most popular features. It’s clear that our users want more video tools and new ways to tell their stories through creative self-expression,“ said VSCO CEO and co-founder Joel Flory. “Though Rylo is most well-known for manufacturing compact cameras, over the past several months the Rylo team has been exclusively working on mobile video editing tools. Building high-end video editing capability on mobile is no small feat and we believe our combined technology and focus on video will help pave new innovation for video editing tools. We can’t wait to make these new tools available to the VSCO community next year.”

VSCO is going to tap into Rylo’s technology for its mobile editing features. But Rylo will no longer build cameras.

Both of Rylo’s co-founders Alex Karpenko and Chris Cunningham will be joining VSCO. Karpenko is also known for launching Luma Camera (acquired by Instagram) and also helped the Facebook-owned photo social network develop a timelapse app. And Cunningham previously worked at Apple as an engineer focused on apps like iLife, Aperture, and iPhoto.

“In just the past year, we’ve seen video editing double on VSCO, and DSCO our GIF creation tool remains one of our most popular features. It’s clear that our users want more video tools and new ways to tell their stories through creative self-expression. Though Rylo is most well-known for manufacturing compact cameras, over the past several months the Rylo team has been exclusively working on mobile video editing tools. Building high-end video editing capability on mobile is no small feat and we believe our combined technology and focus on video will help pave new innovation for video editing tools. We can’t wait to make these new tools available to the VSCO community next year,” added Flory.