Making a video can be as easy as writing a PPT! UK startup Synthesia promoted to AIGC unicorn

**Source: **Financial Association

Edit Zhao Hao

On Tuesday (June 13th) local time, Synthesia, a digital media platform headquartered in London, England, told the media that the company had raised approximately US$90 million in its latest round of financing, with a valuation of US$1 billion, and was officially promoted to "Single Horn". beast" enterprise.

"Unicorn" is the term used by people in the American investment community for start-up companies with a market value of more than US$1 billion and no more than 10 years of establishment. In recent years, "unicorn" enterprises have become a sudden force among start-ups in the era of digital economy and have attracted widespread attention.

It is understood that Synthesia was established in 2017. The main business of the platform is to help users create videos using artificial intelligence technology. The virtual avatars in the videos can introduce companies, training services, etc. in more than 120 different languages. They all look like real people.

The process of making a video is relatively simple. You only need to provide a text manuscript, select a virtual anchor avatar, set the scene and background music, etc., and Synthesia can automatically complete the video production, which can help users avoid a lot of costs in the video production process.

Synthesia's business targets are mainly corporate customers, including the world-renowned Tiffany, InterContinental Hotels, Moody's Analytics, etc. The company says its business has been driving triple-digit growth, with 12 million videos produced on the platform to date and a 456% surge in users year-over-year.

In 2019, with the consent of British football superstar David Beckham, the company partnered with nonprofits to create a composite video in which a virtual Beckham called for malaria awareness in nine different languages , to urge world leaders to take action against the deadly disease. It also brought Synthesia to mainstream attention for the first time.

Favored by technology investment companies

Synthesia’s latest funding round was led by Accel, a venture capital firm that has backed more than 300 businesses and was an early investor in Facebook and Spotify.

In addition, Nvidia, the leader in AI computing power, also joined the financing as a strategic investor. However, Synthesia did not disclose the specific amount of funds invested by these companies.

Accel partner Philippe Botteri told the media that Synthesia can reduce the cost of making video to the same level as making PPT, which can significantly improve productivity.

Botteri also pointed out that video is a better way to exchange knowledge. "Usually when we look at the potential and valuation of companies, we look at what returns they can bring", but Synthesia is unfathomable in this regard.

Nvidia and Synthesia

On the whole, Synthesia's service is also a generative artificial intelligence similar to ChatGPT. The company stresses that it has been working on this proprietary field for years, and that while ChatGPT has only recently emerged in the public eye, generative AI is not a very new technology.

Synthesia plans to invest more in technology that will allow avatars to perform more tasks. “The next stage of technology is to make these avatars more expressive and able to do more things like walk around a room and have a conversation,” says company founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli.

It is worth mentioning that at Nvidia's 2021 GTC conference, in order to promote its own virtual reality creation tool Omniverse, the "virtual old Huang" who is exactly the same as Huang Renxun's real person also briefly appeared.

Referring to the company’s latest strategic investor Nvidia, Riparbelli was full of praise. He said that Nvidia is not only a semiconductor manufacturer, but also a stronghold of research and development talents. “They have a great research team. They were very ahead."