Unlock the World of Personalized Avatars: Synthesia Raises $90M for AI-driven Creations
June 14 2023
Synthesia, a startup developing AI-driven avatars for personalized digital marketing and training videos, has raised $90 million in a Series C round led by Accel, with participation from Nvidia, Kleiner Perkins, GV, Firstmark Capital, and MMC. The funding brings the company’s total raised to $156.6 million and values it at $1 billion post-money. Founded in 2017, Synthesia has over 50,000 customers, including 35% of the Fortune 500, and boasts a 456% year-over-year user growth rate. Despite concerns over deepfake potential, the company vets its customers, requires formal consent for synthesizing appearances, and maintains a disinformation team. The latest investment will be used to enhance avatar expressiveness and improve the platform’s speed and collaboration capabilities.
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What does it mean?
- Series C round: a later stage in the process of raising capital for a business, typically following Series A and Series B rounds, through the sale of equity or debt securities to investors.
- Accel, Kleiner Perkins, GV, Firstmark Capital, and MMC: venture capital firms that invest in early and growth-stage companies.
- Post-money: the value of a company after external financing and/or capital injections are added to its balance sheet.
- Fortune 500: an annual list of the 500 largest companies in the United States, ranked by revenue. Year-over-year user growth rate: the percentage increase of users comparing one period (usually a fiscal year) to the same period in the previous year.
- Deepfake: a technique for human image synthesis based on artificial intelligence that is used to create fake videos or manipulated images, often causing disinformation.
- Disinformation team: a group of specialists within a company dedicated to preventing, detecting, and addressing false or misleading information related to the company's products or services.