As part of its expansion into the photo editing space, U.S. writing assistant firm Jasper has acquired Clipdrop, an artificial intelligence-powered photo application from Stability AI, the company told Reuters.

The London-based startup Stability AI, which purchased Clipdrop less than a year ago, is reversing course with this deal, the terms of which were not disclosed. Stability AI is recognized for its picture generating AI model.

The CEO of Stability AI, Emad Mostaque, said in an email that the acquisition will enable the business to keep concentrating on creating “cutting-edge open models”.

Founded in July 2020, Clipdrop is a Paris-based company that lets people create and edit images using open source AI models. Air Street Capital had provided seed funding for it before it was sold to Stability AI in March 2023 for an unknown sum. Clipdrop claimed to have over 15 million users at the time.

“This is a great way for us to not only expand the product capabilities, expand our AI talent, but also expand our footprint into Europe,” Timothy Young, the chief executive officer of Jasper.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a part of the generative AI space, where investors and users like Jasper and Stability AI are present.

Both businesses are attempting to demonstrate that they can maintain growth in the rapidly advancing race with other startups and major internet corporations after raising over $100 million from venture investors at billion-dollar valuations.

In an effort to concentrate on helping businesses rather than consumers, Jasper, which is well-known for its AI-based writing tool, has had CEO changes and layoffs in the last 12 months. While maintaining Clipdrop’s availability as a stand-alone product, it intends to make it available through its platform.