Synthesia is a platform that allows users to create AI-generated clips with human avatars that can speak multiple languages.
Synthesis
LONDON – Synthesia, a video platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate clips with multilingual human avatars, has raised $180 million in an investment round valuing the startup at $2.1 billion.
That’s more than double Synthesia’s $1 billion valuation in its last funding in 2023.
The London-based startup said on Wednesday that the funding round was led by venture firm NEA with participation from Atlassian Ventures, World Innovation Lab and PSP Growth.
KTA counts Uber and TikTok parent company ByteDance among its portfolio companies. Synthesia is also backed by the chip giant Nvidia.
Victor Riparbelli, CEO of Synthesia, told CNBC that investors valued the business differently than other companies in the space because of its focus on “utility.”
“Of course, the hype cycle is good for us,” Riparbelli said in an interview. “For us, what’s important is building a really good business.”
Synthesia is not “dependent” on venture capital — compared to companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral, Riparbelli added.
These startups have raised billions of dollars in staggering valuations while spending significant amounts of money to train and develop their underlying AI models.
Synthesia isn’t the only startup shaking up the world of AI video production. Other startups offer AI-powered video content production and editing solutions, such as Veed.io and Runway.
Meanwhile, both OpenAI and Adobe have also developed AI generating tools for creating videos.
Eric Liaw, a London-based partner at VC firm IVP, told CNBC that companies in the application layer of AI have not garnered as much investor buzz as firms in the infrastructure layer.
“The amount of money that application layer companies have to raise is not as large — and therefore the valuations are not necessarily as attractive” as companies like Nvidia, Liaw told CNBC last month.
Riparbelli said the money raised from the latest funding round will be used to invest in “more of the same,” furthering product development and investing more in security and compliance.
Last year, Synthesia made a number of updates to its platform, including the ability to produce AI avatars using a webcam or laptop phone, full-body avatars with arms and hands, and a screen recording tool that has an avatar of AI that guides users through what they are viewing.
On the AI security front, in October Synthesia conducted a public red team test of risks around online harm, which showed how the firm’s compliance checks against attempts to create deep human fakes or use avatars its to encourage suicide, adult content or gambling. .
The National Institute of Standards and Technology test was led by Rumman Chowdhury, a renowned data scientist who was previously head of AI ethics at Twitter – before becoming known as X under Elon Musk.
Riparbelli said Synthesia is seeing increased interest from large enterprise customers, particularly in the US, thanks to its focus on security and compliance.
More than half of Synthesia’s annual revenue now comes from customers in the US, while Europe accounts for almost half.
Synthesia has also increased employment. The company recently named former Amazon executive Peter Hill as its chief technology officer. The company now employs over 400 people worldwide.
Synthesia’s announcement follows the unveiling of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s 50-point plan to make the UK a global leader in AI.
UK Technology Minister Peter Kyle said the investment “demonstrates the confidence investors have in British technology” and “underscores the global leadership of UK-based companies in pioneering generative AI innovations”.
