Synthesia will raise $180M in a $2.1B valuation for its B2B AI video platform

As the world continues work through why? handle With the explosion of content on the Internet, it seems that not all AI-generated videos are causing controversy. Synthesiaa London-based start-up company building things around AI avatar technology, says it’s a huge hit with businesses, with some 60,000 of them – 1 million users – using the technology to create avatar-based videos from documentaries, sales and marketing. education etc.

Now VCs also want to join in on the action. Synthesia today confirmed that it has closed a $180 million, Series D round that values ​​the company at $2.1 billion. NEA is leading the round, with participation from new investors WiL (World Innovation Lab), Atlassian Ventures, and PSP Growth, in addition to previous backers GV and MMC Ventures. Synthesia has raised $330 million to date.

The founder plans to use the money to recruit, especially to expand in Asia Pacific – Synthesia’s main business today is in Europe and North America – and continue to roll out its products.

“We’re doubling down on everything we’re already doing,” CEO and co-founder Victor Riparbelli said in an interview. “We want to make our avatars better.” He said the company’s “long road map” includes real-time events; the ability to place avatars in different locations; avatars that can interact with objects, i.e., give physical manifestations; and avatars that can interact with users. It will also be eating some of its own by creating more “helpers” to help customers create avatar items more easily.

One area where there is no rush is in M&A. Synthesia has so far not been available and Riparbelli said his preference is to build his technology in-house, along with using APIs for non-build applications. For example, it works with Eleven Labs for voice, and it taps and controls third-party versions of the Major Languages ​​instead of building them.

Synthesia circles have been active for months: The Information report that it was raising $150 million in November 2024. In terms of raising additional funds, it has been 18 months since Synthesia disclosed its last investment: in June 2023, it said. closed a $90 million round at a price of $1 billion and previous sponsors include Kleiner Perkins and Accel.

Meanwhile, the AI ​​industry has become a major magnet for VCs, providing a a bright place in areas of low income. AI startups accounted for 37% of the $368.5 billion invested in all startups in 2024 worldwide, according to PitchBook data. In the US this share was even bigger, with AI startups getting nearly 50% of the $209 billion they invested last year.

Synthesia says it now has 60,000 businesses as customers, compared to 50,000 in June 2023, and its goal was to create its own niche in the space as a way for businesses that want to create their own videos.

It’s doing this at a time when advanced video AI systems are on the rise. There are fundamentals that apply to the ability to extrapolate full videos from the original documents, while others want to create avatars that can interact in real time and real-time video assistants. Some say they can create life-like avatars for their users just one minute of video. (A simple test to see how crowded the market is right now is to put Synthesia into Google, and see how many companies are buying ads against its name. There’s a lot.)

Synthesia is not concerned with product quality. It has been developing the “2.0” version of its platform for some time and has already released a number of similar products, including the one it does. your avatars what users can do with the camera of the laptop or phone that it has thoughts; a Chrome extensions which generates video content based on screen data; its kind of a AI video assistant which can convert documents into videos; multiple language options; and collaborative systems for people to edit video at the same time.

More than that, though, Riparbelli believes the company has limitations in focusing on business users, and its investors say that’s what makes the startup so attractive.

“Synthesia is one of the few AI companies that can take expensive AI and translate that into something valuable,” Vidu Shanmugarajah, a partner at Google Ventures in London, said in an interview. “It has a lot of customer interest. They are interested in driving value in practical situations. Putting this together on a platform that is secure and compatible is very difficult.”

It is interesting to see that Atlassian is investing in this round. The company has been introducing AI services in its various programs, and it seems that it is only a matter of time that a platform like Jira can start to add more video tools to the mix, opening up. the door of cooperation with his company of record.