Synthesia is a
synthetic media
Synthetic media (also known as AI-generated media, media produced by generative AI, personalized media, personalized content, and colloquially as deepfakes) is a catch-all term for the artificial production, manipulation, and modification of dat ...
generation company that develops software used to create
AI generated video content. Its customer base, as of January 2025, includes over sixty percent of
Fortune 100
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...
companies. It is based in
London, England
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
Overview
Synthesia is most often used by corporations for communication, orientation, and training videos. It has been used in advertising campaigns, reporting, product demonstrations, and to create
chatbot
A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of main ...
s.
Synthesia's software algorithm mimics speech and facial movements based on video recordings of an individual's
speech
Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
and
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
pronunciation. From this a
text-to-speech
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...
video is created to look and sound like the individual.
Users create content via the platform's pre-generated AI presenters
or by creating digital representations of themselves, or personal
avatar
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 ...
s, using the platform's AI video editing tool.
These avatars can be used to narrate videos generated from text. As of August 2021, Synthesia's voice database included multiple gender options in over sixty languages.
The platform prohibits use of its software to create non-consensual clones, including of celebrities or political figures for satirical purposes. Explicit consent must be provided in addition to a strict pre-screening regimen for use of an individual's likeness to avoid “
deepfaking”.
History
2017–2018: Founding and early history
Synthesia's software utilizes
deep learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...
architecture developed by
Lourdes Agapito and
Matthias Niessner. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Agapito, Niessner, Victor Riparbelli, and Steffen Tjerrild. In 2018, the company first demonstrated the software's capabilities on the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
programme ''
Click'' when it presented a digitization of
Matthew Amroliwala speaking Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi.
2019–2020: Initial funding
Synthesia raised $3.1 million in
seed funding
Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggests ...
in 2019.
In 2020, Synthesia users were reported to include
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
,
Tiffany & Co. and
IHG Hotels & Resorts.
2021–2022: Series A, B, and partnerships
In April 2021, the company raised $12.5 million in
Series A
A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...
funding.
In December 2021, it raised $50 million in a
Series B
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...
funding round led by
Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...
and
GV.
In 2021, Synthesia partnered with
Lay's
Lay's (, ) is a brand of potato chips with different flavors, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay, as both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the ...
to create the Messi Messages campaign featuring Argentine footballer
Lionel Messi
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...
. Users created personalized messages with Synthesia's software and sent custom artificial reality video messages from Messi based on their text input. The campaign received a
Cannes Lion Award.
2023–2024: Misuse controls
Synthesia gained a total valuation of $1 billion, and achieved
unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unico ...
status, when it raised $90 million from
Accel and
Nvidia
Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...
partnership NVentures, in June 2023, during its Series C funding round.
[
While the company prohibits use of its technology for ]misinformation
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...
or "news-like content",[In Big Election Year, A.I.’s Architects Move Against Its Misuse]
The New York Times accessed 19 August 2024. an October 2023 Freedom House
Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...
report stated that Synthesia tools had been used by governments in Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
and China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
to create videos of fake TV news outlets with AI-generated avatars in order to spread propaganda. The company stated, in February 2024, that it had improved its misuse detection systems,[ and, in April 2024, that new users of its technology are screened by the company, and content employing it is further vetted by Synthesia moderators.][Nvidia-backed startup Synthesia unveils AI avatars that can convey human emotions]
CNBC accessed 19 August 2024.
In January 2024, the company introduced its AI video assistant, which turns text-to-video
A text-to-video model is a machine learning model that uses a natural language description as input to produce a video relevant to the input text. Advancements during the 2020s in the generation of high-quality, text-conditioned videos have large ...
. That April, with a reported 55,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 100
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...
, Synthesia launched "expressive avatars".[
]
2025–Present: Expansion and leadership changes
Counting 60,000 customers the following January, including over 60% of Fortune 100 companies; the company raised $180 million in a Series D round led by NEA,North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
.[
In February 2025, UK Science and Technology Minister ]Peter Kyle
Peter John Kyle (born 9 September 1970) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove ...
commended Synthesia's "pioneering generative AI innovations."[Nvidia-backed AI video platform Synthesia doubles valuation to $2.1 billion]
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
. January 15, 2025
References
External links
*
{{Generative AI
2017 establishments in England
2017 software
Chatbots
Artificial intelligence companies
Text-to-video generation