HeyGen is a

generative artificial intelligence Generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses generative models to produce text, images, videos, or other forms of data. These models Machine learning, learn the underlyin ...

company that creates photo-realistic

avatars Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

via user-submitted photos and videos as well as a library of pre-made avatars and voices. The digital avatar can recite prompts in multiple languages. When submitting content to be used in the generation of a video, users are required to give verbal consent, along with a spoken password to verify their identity. Human moderators are used to remove and block any content used for the purpose of bullying, harassment, and the spread of

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

, in addition to the use of an automated content filter.

History

HeyGen (originally named Surreal, later rebranded from Movio) was founded by Joshua Xu and Wayne Liang in 2020. HeyGen established its headquarters in Los Angeles in 2022. The company initially raised capital from investors including

Sequoia China HongShan Capital Group (HSG; ) is a Chinese venture capital firm founded in 2005. It was previously the China investment arm of Sequoia Capital (Sequoia) and was known as Sequoia Capital China and Sequoia China before it was rebranded and spun- ...

(now HongShan) and

ZhenFund ZhenFund () is a Beijing-based venture capital firm founded in 2011 by New Oriental co-founders Bob Xu and Victor Wang. It is considered one of the largest angel investors in China. Background In 2011, Bob Xu and Victor Wang established ZhenF ...

. The HeyGen app launched in September 2022. In November 2023, the company raised $5.6 million in funding from Sarah Guo’s venture capital firm, Conviction. In exchange for the funding, Guo would replace HongShan’s seat on the board of directors. As of the same date, the company reported employing 25 people. In 2024, the service was used to translate and

lip-sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements ...

Argentinian president Javier Milei’s speech to the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

. In June 2024, HeyGen raised $60 million in a funding round that valued the company at $500 million. The funding was led by

Benchmark Benchmark may refer to: Business and economics * Benchmarking, evaluating performance within organizations * Benchmark price * Benchmark (crude oil), oil-specific practices Science and technology * Experimental benchmarking, the act of defining a ...

, with participation from

Conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

, Bond Capital, and

Thrive Capital Thrive Capital Management, LLC, commonly Thrive Capital, is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. It focuses on software and internet investments. The firm was founded by Joshua Kushner who is also co-founder of Oscar Health ...

. As of that date, the company reported having more than 40,000 customers and an annualized recurring revenue of $35 million. In November 2024, HeyGen was recognized by ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

'' as part of the publication’s "Next Big Things in Tech" list. The company was also recognized by '' Inc.'' as part of their 2024 "Best in Business" list.

References

External links

* {{Generative AI Text-to-image generation Deep learning software applications