Blackbird hires Sumit Rai as Chief Product Officer

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May 12, 2022, 05:05 ET

LONDON, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD) (OTCQX: BBRDF), the technology licensor, developer and seller of the market-leading cloud native video editing platform, Blackbird, today announces the appointment of Sumit Rai as Chief Product Officer. Sumit will join the Company in June 2022 from VEGAS Creative Software where he holds the same role.

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Sumit has over 23 years leadership experience in the video and film industry. Starting off as a visual effects and video editor in news production, children's TV and film, Sumit progressed to Chief Technology Officer at Pukka Films developing an innovative, award-winning production facility before founding Kulu Valley. Providing enterprise video distribution platforms for tier 1 organizations, Kulu Valley was acquired by Qumu Inc (NASDAQ: QUMU) in 2014 where Sumit served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Product Officer. Sumit is leaving his position as Chief Product Officer of the well-known video editing platform, VEGAS Pro. He joins Blackbird to lead the strategic development and direction of the Company's product suite.

Having developed video editing and distribution platforms used by thousands of companies and millions of users, Sumit will help take Blackbird's multi award-winning and multi-patented technology to wider markets.

Sumit Rai said: "As the future of video content creation moves to the cloud it's great to be joining Blackbird, already leaders in the space. The opportunities are endless as the technology can add major efficiencies and value in so many markets and enable many new users. I can't wait to start working alongside the Blackbird team."

Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough, added: "I am truly delighted to welcome Sumit, who joins us with immense personal drive and energy informed by relevant industry experience in SaaS video platforms. We are bringing him into the Blackbird team to lead the strategic development of our product portfolio and help accelerate our growth. He joins the Company at an exciting time when we are very well positioned to leverage our core technology into fast growing video markets."

Enquiries:

Blackbird plc
Ian McDonough, Chief Executive Officer
Adrian Lambert, Chief Marketing Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 8879 7245

Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Nick Naylor / Piers Shimwell (Corporate Finance)
Amrit Nahal (Sales and Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656

About Blackbird plc

Blackbird plc operates in the fast-growing SaaS and cloud video market. It has created Blackbird®, the world's most advanced suite of cloud-native computing applications for video, all underpinned by its lightning-fast codec. Blackbird plc's patented technology allows for frame accurate navigation, playback, viewing and editing in the cloud. Blackbird® enables multiple applications, which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, esports, live events and content owners, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

Since it is cloud-native, Blackbird® removes the need for costly, high end workstations and can be used from almost anywhere on almost any device. It also allows full visibility on multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for digital distribution, and ultimately results in much more effective monetisation.

Blackbird plc is a licensor of its core video technology under its 'Powered by Blackbird' licensing model. Enabling video companies to accelerate their path to true cloud business models, licensees benefit from power and carbon reductions, cost and time savings, less hardware and bandwidth requirements and easy scalability.

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SOURCE Blackbird plc