January 21, 2025

AI video unicorn Synthesia closes $180 million Series D

3 min read
Synthesia has been named the UK's most valuable generative AI media company. UNLEASH gets the inside track on the investment round from Synthesia co-founder, CFO and COO Steffen Tjerrild.

2024 was a booming year for HR technology, and 2025 is looking no different; mergers, acquisitions and funding rounds are continuing at space in the sector.

Hot on the heels of Employment Hero buying Humi for $69.5 million, Paychex acquiring Paycor for $4.1 billion and Maki securing a £23.4 million Series A, Synthesia has closed a $180 million Series D.

Synthesia is headquartered in London and provides AI video tools for enterprise communications – according to Dealroom, the company is now the UK’s most valuable generative AI media company, and is the country's second largest AI company.

The Series D was led by NEO, with contributions from new investors (like Atlassian Ventures, WiL and PSP Growth), as well as existing investors GV, MMC Ventures and First Mark.

Their investment brings Synthesia’s total funding to $330 million and values the company at a $2.1 billion.

A bright future for the UK’s largest AI media company

Talking about the Series D round, Steffen Tjerrild, Synethesia Co-founder, COO and CFO, exclusively tells UNLEASH: “Two years ago, natural language had its breakthrough moment with the launch of ChatGPT, showing the world the transformative potential of large language models for text generation.

“This funding will accelerate our product roadmap, expand our team, and deepen our relationships with our customers as we figure out new use cases for our platform and expand existing ones.”

Synthesia is also planning to continue its expansion in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia – currently the company has 400 employees and six offices in London, New York City, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Zurich and Munich.

Talking about the investment, Philip Chopin, Managing Director, NEA UK shared: “NEA has a long history of supporting transformative companies, and we’re excited to partner with Synthesia as they shape the future of AI-powered communication.

Synthesia currently serves 50,000 customers, including Zoom, Reuters, Heineken, Dupont, Siemens, Korn Ferry and SAP.

Looking ahead, Tjerrild tells UNLEASH: “We’ll continue to develop deeper with our customers enabling more end-to-end visual experiences.

“We’ll change video from a one directional format to and more bidirectional experience with interactive features in the near future.”

Tjerrild shares: “Last year, we released the world’s most realistic AI avatars which were a huge success with HR teams worldwide.

“We’re in the process of training new video models that will make our avatars even more expressive and we’ll start developing new features and products to make video more interactive and personalized.”

He continues: “The avatars are just an ingredient in our full enterprise video platform.

“We’ve added features such as assisted creation that allow you to create a video from a text file, or live collaboration which enables teams to co-create videos together.

“We’re also expanding in video distribution by building our own video player which currently allows users to distribute content in over 100 languages and soon will offer interactive and personalized experiences.

“Imagine watching a training video and being able to ask questions about the content in real time, or to watch a video series that is personalized for the learning needs of every employee.”

Watch this space.