{"id":391473,"date":"2026-01-26T15:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:54:14","slug":"uk-maker-of-ai-avatars-nearly-doubles-valuation-to-4bn-after-funding-round-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391473\/","title":{"rendered":"UK maker of AI avatars nearly doubles valuation to $4bn after funding round | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A British AI startup that makes realistic video avatars<\/a> has almost doubled its valuation to $4bn (\u00a33bn), in a boost for the UK technology sector.<\/p>\n

Synthesia was valued at $2.1bn last year and moved into new offices in central London, marking the moment with a ceremony attended by the Sadiq Khan, the city\u2019s mayor, and Peter Kyle, then technology secretary.<\/p>\n

On Monday, it announced its latest funding round, led by an existing investor, Google Ventures, had raised $200m and valued the British company at $4bn. Google Ventures is the search firm\u2019s venture capital arm.<\/p>\n

Synthesia uses human actors to generate digital avatars of people and also offers employers the ability to create replicas of their staff. Those avatars are then deployed by organisations in corporate videos in a range of scenarios such as health and safety in the workplace, advising on cybersecurity and how to communicate better at work.<\/p>\n

The company counts 70% of the FTSE 100 as clients, including NatWest, Lloyds Bank and British Gas. It is also used by non-corporate bodies including the NHS, the European Commission and the United Nations.<\/p>\n

The startup is also developing new avatars that will help train employees and give them new skills, through scenarios such as role-playing and giving tailored explanations.<\/p>\n

Synthesia\u2019s co-founder, Steffen Tjerrild, said the increased valuation reflected the commitment of the company\u2019s longstanding backers rather than the investment hype surrounding the AI sector. \u201cExisting investors have seen the progress, have seen the numbers, have seen them compound year over year,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is also telling a story that this is less [a case of] external investors trying to kind of hype it up, but more about validation from existing investors as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, a leading British tech investor, James Anderson, said he found sharp increases in valuations of AI startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic \u201cdisconcerting\u201d.<\/a> Tjerrild said Synthesia was focusing on executing its business plan, which, he added, was backed by investors who were long-term supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis round is led by insiders, or predominantly existing investors that deeply understand the business, have seen the execution and the improvement of the business over many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Synthesia generated revenues of $58.3m in 2024 but made a pre-tax loss of $59.2m, according to its latest published accounts, which the company said reflected its investment in headcount, its technology and new offices. Synthesia said it was on track to make $200m in revenues this year.<\/p>\n

The $4bn valuation puts the company on a par with UK broadcaster ITV, which is worth \u00a33.1bn. Tjerrild\u2019s shareholding in Synthesia is now worth $160m, the same as its chief executive and fellow co-founder, Victor Riparbelli.<\/p>\n

Synthesia was founded in 2017 by the two Danish nationals, as well as the computer scientists Matthias Niessner and Lourdes Agapito.<\/p>\n

Last year, the London mayor said Synthesia was doing \u201cincredibly well\u201d as he opened its new offices. However, in a speech this month<\/a> Khan said AI would \u201cusher in a new era of mass unemployment\u201d if used recklessly, as intelligent, autonomous systems proved cheap replacements for humans.<\/p>\n

Tjerrild said he believed AI would enable businesses to hire more staff. \u201cWe\u2019re an AI-first company, we have 600 employees and we hired 40% more people last year,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a business owner myself, if my employees become more productive that means I can invest and hire more people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British AI startup that makes realistic video avatars has almost doubled its valuation to $4bn (\u00a33bn), in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-391473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}