As the world persists to toil thraw how to regulate the explosion of proset upinedit satisfyed online, it seems that not all AI-originated videos are stirring argue. Synthesia, a London commenceup originateing products around highly rational AI avatar technology, says it’s a big hit with accesspelevates, with some 60,000 of them — 1 million includers — tapping the tech to originate avatar-based videos from text write downs, for sales and tageting, for training and more.
Now VCs also want to get in on the action. Synthesia today validateed that it has seald a funding round of $180 million, a Series D that catapults the company’s valuation to $2.1 billion. NEA is directing the round, with participation from new scatterors WiL (World Innovation Lab), Atlassian Ventures, and PSP Growth, plus previous backers GV and MMC Ventures. Synthesia has elevated $330 million to date.
The commenceup schedules to include the funding for hiring, particularly to broaden in Asia Pacific – the bulk of Synthesia’s business today is in Europe and North America – and to persist evolving its products.
“We’re doubling down on all the slfinishergs we’re already doing right,” shelp CEO and co-set uper Victor Riparbelli, in an intersee. “We want to originate our avatars better.” He shelp the company’s “extfinished roadmap” integrates more rational motion; being able to port avatars into contrastent environments; avatars that can include with objects to, for example, supply physical demonstrations; and avatars that can include with includers. It’s also going to be eating some of its own dogfood by originateing more “agents” to help customers originate avatar-based satisfyed more easily.
One area where it’s not chasing activity is in M&A. Synthesia to date has made no acquisitions and Riparbelli shelp its likeence is for originateing its technology in hoinclude, aextfinishedside using APIs for what it does not originate itself. For example, it toils with Eleven Labs for voice, and it taps and fine-tunes a variety of third-party Large Language Models instead of originateing its own.
Synthesia’s round has been in the toils for at least a confidemand months: The Increateation telled that it was raising $150 million in November 2024. For a little more fundraising context, it’s been about 18 months since Synthesia last disseald funding: in June 2023, it seald a $90 million round on a $1 billion valuation with previous backers including Kleiner Perkins and Accel.
In the interim, AI companies have been a huge magnet for VCs, providing a luminous spot in a somewhat deficiencyluster funding landscape. AI commenceups accounted for more than 37% of the $368.5 billion scattered atraverse all commenceups in 2024 globassociate, according to PitchBook data. In the U.S. the proportion was even more stark, with AI commenceups garnering cforfeitly 50% of the $209 billion scattered last year.
Synthesia says it now has 60,000 businesses as customers, contrastd to 50,000 in June 2023, and its aim has been to carve out its own niche in the space as the go-to platcreate for accesspelevates that are seeing to originate out their video includeions.
It’s doing so at a time when persistd AI video functionality is getting increasingly more normal. There are commenceups that are toiling on the ability to extrapoprocrastinateed filled product videos out of basic write downs, while others aim to originate avatars contendnt of authentic-time includeions and authentic-time video helpants. Some claim to be able to originate lifeenjoy avatars of their includers from fair one minute of video. (A basic test to see fair how crowded the taget is here is to put Synthesia into Google, and examine out how many companies are buying search ads aobtainst its name. There are a lot.)
Synthesia is not immune to the product race. It’s been originateing a “2.0” version of its platcreate for a while now and has already freed a number of roverhappinessed features, including its own get on personal avatars that includers can originate with a laptop camera or phone that feature emotions; a Chrome extension that originates basic videos based on screen data; its own version of an AI video helpant that can alter write downs into videos; multi language chooseions; and collaboration features for people to edit a video simultaneously.
More to the point, though, Riparbelli supposes that the company has an edge by intensifying itself squacount on on business includers, and its scatterors say that is what originates the commenceup attrenergetic.
“Synthesia is one of only a handful of AI companies that can get authentic cutting edge AI and actuassociate transprocrastinateed those into someslfinisherg with authentic utility,” shelp Vidu Shanmugarajah, a partner at Google Ventures in London, in an intersee. “It has inanxious customer intensify. They are obsessed with driving cherish in a rational setting. Putting that together in a platcreate that’s protected and compliant is super challenging to do.”
It’s fascinating, too, to see Atlassian scattering in this round.The company has been injecting AI functionality into its various apps, and it seems only a matter of time that a platcreate enjoy Jira might commence compriseing in more video tools into that mix, uncovering the door for a collaboration with its portfolio company.
