British artificial intelligence company Synthesia has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the business at $4 billion and underscoring continued investor appetite for niche AI companies with clear commercial use cases.
The valuation nearly doubles the $2.1 billion level the London-based startup achieved last year.
The latest round was led by Google Ventures and included participation from new investors Hedosophia and Evantic, the venture fund founded by former Sequoia Capital investor Matt Miller.
Existing backers NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, PSP Growth and Air Street Capital also took part.
Growing focus on corporate training software
Founded in 2017 by AI researchers and entrepreneurs from institutions including Stanford and Cambridge, Synthesia specialises in text-to-video generation software.
The company has built a business around helping enterprises create training and internal communications videos using AI-generated avatars, reducing the need for traditional video production.
Synthesia offers a freemium model with capped video usage, alongside subscription plans and bespoke enterprise packages.
Unlike many AI startups still focused on experimentation, the company has found traction in corporate learning and development, with clients including Bosch, Merck, SAP and, more recently, Microsoft.
The company said it crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in April 2025 and is on track to reach $200 million this year.
It also reported a sharp increase in large contracts, quadrupling agreements worth more than $100,000 over the past 12 months.
Capital to fuel AI agents and interactivity
Synthesia plans to use the new funding to develop more advanced interactive video tools, moving beyond one-way training content.
The company is working on AI agents embedded in video avatars that can answer questions, simulate role-play scenarios and provide tailored explanations to employees during training sessions.
Chief executive and co-founder Victor Riparbelli said enterprises are under growing pressure to reskill and upskill their workforce, creating a timely opportunity for more interactive and responsive training tools.
He described the convergence of enterprise demand and AI capability as a rare market moment.
The shift aligns with a broader trend toward AI agents that can interact dynamically with users, rather than simply generating static content.
Employee liquidity through structured secondary sale
Alongside the funding round, Synthesia is facilitating an employee secondary share sale in partnership with Nasdaq, which is acting as a private markets intermediary rather than a public exchange, TechCrunch reported.
The process allows employees to sell shares at the same $4 billion valuation as the Series E, while giving the company more control over the transaction.
Chief financial officer Daniel Kim said the secondary sale is designed to give employees access to liquidity while allowing Synthesia to remain focused on long-term growth as a private company.
Secondary sales are often conducted informally and at varying valuations, sometimes creating tension among shareholders.
Investor confidence amid AI valuation debate
The funding comes amid ongoing debate over whether heavy spending in artificial intelligence is inflating a market bubble.
While some investors have grown cautious, the Synthesia round suggests capital continues to flow toward companies with defined revenue streams and enterprise adoption.
The deal also follows other large AI-related raises in the UK, including a $1.1 billion round by data centre operator Nscale Global Holdings earlier this year.
Despite this activity, European AI startups still trail US peers in valuation scale.
Anthropic and OpenAI are both seeking massive funding rounds at valuations far exceeding those typically seen in Europe, highlighting the transatlantic gap in AI capital markets.
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