Synthesia Ltd., the maker of a video platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate clips featuring human avatars, has raised $180 million in a late-stage round valuing the startup at $2.1 billion.

The London-based company said today that the Series D funding was led by venture firm NEA, which more than doubled its valuation from $1 billion since its last round in 2023. Existing investors, including GV, MMC Ventures and Firstmark, and new backers, including World Innovation Lab, Atlassian Ventures and PSP Growth, also participated in the round.

The company produces a tool that allows enterprise business users to quickly generate and distribute synthetic AI video clips that can create photorealistic, lifelike human avatars that stand in for people. It also uses AI to assist with editing and producing the end videos, doing away with complicated production software.

Last year, Synthesia added numerous updates to its platform including personalized avatars created using webcam or smartphones that can be paired with a clone of the user’s own voice. The avatar looks like the person, sounds like them and can speak in more than 30 different languages while also having a full-body avatar with moving arms and hands that gesture while speaking.

For other users who don’t want the personal touch, it’s possible to select from over 230 prebuilt lifelike avatars that can speak in more than 140 languages. Synthesia’s video player allows it to automatically play in the viewer’s language, making sharing videos easier to distribute. The company also added the capability to include multiple avatars in one scene to recreate dialogues on any topic.

“Since we founded the company in 2017 we’ve believed that AI would rapidly shift communication from text to high-fidelity formats like video and audio, said co-founder and Chief Executive Victor Riparbelli. “That vision is now a reality.”

Riparbelli said the company has more than 60,000 customers, ranging from the world’s largest brands and thousands of small businesses. The new investment will go toward supporting the development of the company’s product talent pool. It currently has 400 employees.

Looking to the future, Synthesia said it intends to add features that will allow enterprise users to generate interactive video experiences for customers such as clickable hotspots, embedded forms and quizzes. It also intends to build the next generation of AI avatars that are more expressive with body language beyond just broad arm and hand motions, by using their entire body when they speak – such as touching hips and folding arms.

Image: Synthesia