Spherex

What Spherex does

Spherex is a privately held global technology company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with an operations office in Navi Mumbai, India. The company builds SpherexAI — a multimodal AI platform that analyzes video content across visual, audio, and textual dimensions to generate age ratings, detect objectionable content, and produce scene-level metadata for media and entertainment enterprises distributing content across 200+ countries and territories. Its proprietary Cultural Knowledge Graph (a patented technology) groups detected events into coherent scenes and predicts how content will be received in different cultural and regulatory contexts, enabling both compliance certification and contextual advertising applications.

The platform processes over 1,000 classifiable attributes per title, claims 99.9% accuracy in objectionable content detection, and delivers ratings accepted by regulators worldwide — including the Australian Government, which has approved Spherex to produce official classifications across theatrical, home entertainment, and streaming windows. Core product modules include Age Ratings, Objectionable Content Detection, Contextual Advertising (launched March 2025), and Content Descriptors, all delivered via a SaaS/API-first architecture for enterprise integration.

Spherex operates an enterprise field sales motion targeting movie studios, streaming platforms, TV networks, content distributors, and advertisers. Revenue is generated through annual/multi-year subscription licensing, usage-based API fees, and professional services. Named customers include Cineverse (70,000+ titles), Umbrella Entertainment (1,500+ titles), VA Media (21M+ YouTube subscribers), a leading global streaming service distributing to 110+ countries, and an unnamed major Hollywood studio with a 10+ year relationship. The company is founder-controlled (CEO Teresa Phillips, COO Vijay Shah), venture-backed with undisclosed funding history, and actively expanding from compliance into adjacent monetization use cases such as contextual advertising.

Name

Spherex

Legal name

Spherex Inc.

Website

https://spherex.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Spherex builds SpherexAI, a multimodal AI platform that generates age ratings, detects objectionable content, and produces scene-level metadata for video distribution across 200+ countries, serving movie studios, streaming platforms, distributors, and advertisers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Video Content Compliance Software

NAICS

Motion Picture and Video Industries (5121), Motion Picture and Video Distribution (51212), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (5162)

SIC

Services-Allied To Motion Picture Distribution (7829), Services-Allied To Motion Picture Production (7819)

akta.pro primary industry

Content-Aware/AI Media Processing (Per-Title Encode, Scene Detection) (MPAHAHAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Content Identification & Matching (Fingerprinting, ID Resolution) (MPAHALAE), Standards, Registries & Interoperability Services (EIDR/ISAN, CPE, DDEX) (MPAHALAO)

Keywords

• Video content compliance
• Age ratings classification
• Content intelligence platform
• Multimodal video analysis
• Media localization software

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Clara

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription Licensing: Annual or multi-year subscription licensing of SpherexAI platform for content compliance and age ratings. Enterprise pricing based on content volume and territory coverage.
2. API Usage Fees: Usage-based API access for ratings generation and compliance certification, delivered via API integration into client systems.
3. Professional Services: Expert support for compliance processes, regulatory coordination, and custom content analysis projects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Spherex provides SpherexAI, an AI-powered video compliance and cultural intelligence platform that analyzes film, television, and social video content using multimodal AI (computer vision, audio, NLP) to generate regulatory-compliant age ratings for 200+ countries, detect objectionable content, produce scene-level metadata, and power contextual advertising for media and entertainment companies worldwide. The platform delivers ratings, content advisories, and compliance certificates via API for seamless integration into enterprise content distribution workflows.

Product overview

Spherex is a global technology and data company providing AI-powered video compliance and cultural intelligence solutions for media and entertainment enterprises. The core offering is SpherexAI, an integrated platform that combines multiple modules: Age Ratings (obtaining regulatory-compliant ratings for 200+ territories), Video Compliance (objectionable content detection and brand safety), Content Descriptors (AI-generated metadata), and Contextual Advertising (scene-level metadata for ad targeting). The platform uses multimodal AI combining computer vision, audio analysis, and NLP to analyze over 1,000 content attributes. Clients include Hollywood studios, streaming platforms, networks, and distributors. The company operates from Silicon Valley with global regulatory acceptance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SpherexAI: The company's flagship AI-powered video compliance and content classification platform that provides age ratings and cultural intelligence for global content distribution.
• Spherex Ratings

Products and services

• SpherexAI Flagship AI-powered video compliance and cultural intelligence platform for media and entertainment enterprises. Analyzes video content across visual, audio, and dialogue modalities to generate age ratings, identify objectionable content, and produce scene-level metadata for compliance and contextual advertising applications, with capabilities spanning 200+ countries and territories.
• Age Ratings Generates age ratings and advisories for 200+ countries and territories that are accepted by regulators worldwide. Evaluates content against each region's regulations and cultural norms to produce locally compliant ratings, minimizing legal risk and maximizing audience reach for film and television distributors.
• Objectionable Content Detection AI-powered brand safety and compliance solution that analyzes 1,000+ content attributes in real-time across 200+ global markets. Provides frame-accurate detection of problematic content including violence, nudity, explicit language, and culturally sensitive material with 99.9% accuracy, including market-specific risk heat maps and severity scoring.
• Contextual Advertising Scene-level metadata generation module that enables advertisers to target audiences based on cultural and emotional context. Leverages the patented Cultural Knowledge Graph to match ads at optimal moments based on mood, theme, and tone of video content, replacing keyword-based over-blocking with culturally intelligent contextual ad placement.
• Content Descriptors AI-generated keyword descriptors that decode the digital DNA of video content from main themes and characters to dialogues and emotions, enhancing personalization, content discovery, advertising effectiveness, and downstream metadata generation across distribution systems.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduce ratings submission time by 70%
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• VA MediacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 June 2025VA Media, a global network of genre-based movie and TV channels on YouTube with 21M+ subscribers, partnered with Spherex for international compliance on YouTube. SpherexAI provides consistent and reliable compliance framework for VA Media's rapidly expanding film catalog, automating content review to ensure adherence to YouTube community standards and optimizing audience engagement and monetization.
• Umbrella EntertainmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUmbrella Entertainment, leading independent film distributor in Australia and New Zealand managing 1,500+ titles, partnered with Spherex for AI-powered content classification. Spherex technology is approved by Australian Government for producing official age ratings. Partnership reduced classification time by 50% and costs by 50%.
• CineversecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCineverse, streaming technology company distributing 70,000+ titles to 150M monthly viewers, partnered with SpherexAI for compliance with FCC guidelines and platform-specific requirements. SpherexAI identifies objectionable content and provides detailed Edit Decision Lists for compliance editing.
• Major Hollywood Studio (unnamed)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOver decade-long partnership with leading global media company for metadata and ratings across 200 countries. Spherex provides complete and accurate metadata including local ratings, titles, synopses, talent names, and artwork. Partnership ensures smooth and timely content rollouts.
• Leading Streaming Service (unnamed)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for global content distribution to 110+ countries with automated ratings generation, content advisories, and compliance certificates. Spherex coordinates with local regulators, third-party post-production houses, and internal teams.
• zkLinkminorOthersSphereX (decentralized exchange, different entity) received zkLink Season 1 Ecosystem Grant for cross-chain trading enhancements. Note: This appears to be a different SphereX company in the Web3/blockchain space.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Audible Magic: Audible Magic offers content identification (audio/video fingerprinting) for rights management and content moderation, directly comparable to Spherex's content matching and classification use cases for media and entertainment clients.
• Vobile: Vobile provides content identification, fingerprinting, and rights management for film/TV with similar compliance/cultural use cases; both serve studios and distributors needing global metadata and rights enforcement across jurisdictions.
• Clarifai: Clarifai provides a multimodal AI platform for video/image classification, content moderation, and visual understanding — overlapping with Spherex's computer vision and NLP capabilities for enterprise media workflows.
• Pex: Pex provides AI-powered content identification and rights management for video/audio with similar enterprise customer overlap (studios, platforms); the technology stack and use cases (content ID, compliance, monetization) align closely with SpherexAI.
• Hive: Hive offers AI-powered content moderation and visual classification for video at scale, comparable to Spherex's objectionable content detection and multimodal analysis pipeline serving enterprise media customers.

Broad incumbents

• DoubleVerify: DoubleVerify is a leading brand safety and ad verification incumbent that Spherex will compete with directly in the contextual advertising module — both analyze video content for suitability, but DV has much broader adtech integrations and customer base.
• Veritone: Veritone offers AI-powered media analytics and content classification for enterprise customers in media and entertainment; broader portfolio than Spherex but overlapping in the video understanding and metadata generation category.
• Integral Ad Science (IAS): IAS is a major ad verification and brand safety incumbent with overlapping goals of analyzing video content for suitability; comparable in the contextual advertising layer of SpherexAI's offering.
• Google Cloud Video AI: Google Cloud's Video Intelligence API offers shot detection, label detection, and content moderation at scale; another hyperscaler incumbent with overlapping multimodal capabilities that could be wrapped into a compliance workflow.
• Microsoft Azure Video Indexer: Azure Video Indexer provides multimodal AI for video analysis (face, speech, sentiment, content moderation) at hyperscaler scale; represents a bundled incumbent threat to Spherex's specialized compliance positioning.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@spherexai
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/tphillips
• Xx.com/SpherexOfficial

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Spherex