Introduction
Synthesia is a London-based company that provides an AI video platform for enterprises, letting teams turn written scripts into polished videos featuring synthetic on-screen presenters, without cameras, studios, or professional production crews. Founded in 2017 by a group of AI researchers and entrepreneurs from Stanford, Cambridge, UCL, and TUM, the company has grown into the largest generative AI media company in the UK by valuation.
What the company does
Synthesia’s platform converts text scripts into videos featuring AI-generated avatars that speak in dozens of languages, with automated translation and dubbing built in. Customers use the platform primarily for internal communications, employee training, and onboarding content, replacing the traditional process of scheduling filming, hiring presenters, and managing video production teams. The company has since expanded into interactive Video Agents, which let viewers talk back to an on-screen avatar in real time rather than only watching a pre-recorded clip.
Who it serves
Synthesia’s customers are concentrated in learning and development, HR, and marketing teams at large enterprises that need to produce training and communications videos at scale. The company states that more than 60,000 businesses use its platform, including more than half of the Fortune 100 and more than 70 percent of the FTSE 100, and that roughly half of its revenue now comes from customers in the United States despite its London headquarters.
Company background
Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild, Matthias Niessner, and Lourdes Agapito co-founded Synthesia in 2017, building on deep-learning research from Niessner and Agapito’s academic work at institutions including Stanford, Cambridge, UCL, and TUM. Riparbelli serves as CEO and Tjerrild as COO. The company first demonstrated its technology publicly in 2018 on the BBC, showing a presenter’s video re-created speaking multiple languages, before shifting its commercial focus from entertainment studios to enterprise customers after struggling to find sales traction in media. Synthesia has raised more than $700 million in total funding, with its valuation rising from roughly $1 billion in 2023 to $2.1 billion after a $180 million Series D round in January 2025, and then to $4 billion after a $200 million Series E round in January 2026 led by Google Ventures, with participation from NVIDIA’s venture arm NVentures, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, and other existing backers. Peter Hill joined Synthesia as Chief Technology Officer in early 2025 after more than two decades in technical leadership roles at Amazon.
Product and AI capabilities
Synthesia’s core product lets users generate videos using more than 240 AI avatars in over 160 languages, along with tools for screen recording with an AI-guided presenter and creating custom avatars from a webcam or phone recording. Its newer Video Agents product extends this into interactive, conversational avatars designed for use cases like sales training, customer support practice, and onboarding role-play, where a viewer can ask questions and receive responses in real time rather than passively watching a fixed video. The company has said that agentic, interactive video will be a core strategic focus going forward, alongside its existing pre-recorded video tools.
Key developments
Synthesia raised a $180 million Series D round in January 2025 at a $2.1 billion valuation, led by NEA, then raised a $200 million Series E round in January 2026 at a $4 billion valuation, led by Google Ventures with participation from NVIDIA’s NVentures, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins. Alongside the Series E, the company launched Video Agents, an interactive conversational avatar product, and facilitated an employee secondary share sale in partnership with Nasdaq at the $4 billion valuation.
Why it matters
Synthesia is one of the most visible examples of generative AI applied to video rather than text inside the enterprise, and its rapid valuation growth through 2025 and 2026 reflects strong investor appetite for AI tools that address a concrete, recurring cost center — training and internal communications video production — rather than a more speculative use case. Its shift toward interactive Video Agents also signals where the company expects the category to move next, from producing static content to enabling real-time AI-driven interaction.
Sector context
Within enterprise software, Synthesia’s governed approach to generative media parallels the compliance-conscious positioning of text-focused platforms like Writer, and its move into conversational Video Agents overlaps conceptually with workplace assistants such as Glean, both of which are extending single-purpose AI tools into broader, interactive assistants. Together, these companies show how enterprise generative AI vendors that started with a narrow content format are converging on similar agentic, conversational product strategies.
Sources and references
This profile is based on Synthesia’s official about page and its press releases announcing the January 2025 Series D and January 2026 Series E funding rounds, supplemented by independent reporting from CNBC for cross-verification.