Synthesia

Synthesia is a British artificial intelligence avatar-video company founded in 2017 by Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild, Lourdes Agapito (UCL professor), and Matthias Niessner (TU Munich professor). The company is headquartered in London and develops the Synthesia AI avatar-video platform, providing enterprise customers with AI-generated video content using realistic AI avatars across over 130 languages. Synthesia has built enterprise customer traction with over 60,000 reported customers including a portion of Fortune 100 companies. As of 2025 to 2026, Synthesia has raised approximately $300 million-plus across multiple funding rounds at a reported $2.1 billion-plus valuation, with NVIDIA, Atomico, Accel, GV, and Kleiner Perkins investor participation.

At a glance

• Founded: 2017 in London by Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild, Lourdes Agapito, and Matthias Niessner.
• Status: Private. Series D round in 2025 valued the company at $2.1 billion-plus.
• Funding: Approximately $300 million-plus cumulative private capital. Series D of approximately $180 million in early 2024 at $2.1 billion valuation. NVIDIA strategic-investor participation in 2024 round.
• CEO: Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
• Other notable leadership: Steffen Tjerrild, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Lourdes Agapito (Co-Founder; UCL computer-vision professor). Matthias Niessner (Co-Founder; TU Munich computer-vision professor).
• Open weights: No. Synthesia's models are closed-weights commercial products gated through the Synthesia platform.
• Flagship products: Synthesia Studio (the principal AI avatar-video product), Synthesia Express, Synthesia Personal Avatars, and Synthesia API.

Origins

Synthesia was founded in 2017 by Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild, Lourdes Agapito, and Matthias Niessner. The founder cohort combined commercial entrepreneurship (Riparbelli, Tjerrild) with academic computer-vision research credentials (Agapito at University College London, Niessner at TU Munich). The founding thesis emphasized building AI avatars for enterprise video use cases (corporate training, internal communications, learning-and-development, multi-language localization).

The 2017 to 2022 period built Synthesia's product foundation with enterprise customer adoption. The product distinguished itself through high-quality AI avatars suitable for professional enterprise video content, with language coverage (over 130 languages) and sophisticated avatar customization.

The 2023 to 2026 funding trajectory was substantial. Series C round at approximately $1 billion valuation in 2023 was followed by Series D in early 2024 at approximately $2.1 billion valuation with NVIDIA strategic-investor participation. The investor base included Atomico, Accel, GV (Google Ventures), Kleiner Perkins, NVIDIA, and other organizations.

The 2024 to 2026 period has seen continued enterprise customer expansion, with Synthesia reaching over 60,000 customers including a portion of Fortune 100 companies. The product's positioning as enterprise-trustworthy AI avatar video (with controls on who can be cloned, content-policy enforcement, and other enterprise-acceptable practices) has been a principal differentiator from peer offerings.

Mission and strategy

Synthesia's stated mission is to revolutionize video content creation through AI avatars, with emphasis on enterprise-acceptable practices, content-policy controls, and high-quality avatar realism that distinguish the product from peer offerings.

The strategy combines three threads. First, AI avatar foundation-model research, with continued investment in avatar realism, expressive capability, and language coverage. Second, the Synthesia Studio platform as the principal commercial offering, with enterprise customer base. Third, content-policy and governance infrastructure that distinguishes Synthesia from less-controlled AI avatar offerings.

Models and products

• Synthesia Studio. Principal AI avatar-video creation platform. Web-based with enterprise customer customization.
• Personal Avatars. Custom AI avatars created from user-recorded video samples.
• Synthesia Express. Streamlined creation product.
• Synthesia API. Developer-and-enterprise API for video-generation integration.
• Multi-language support. Over 130 languages for AI avatar speech.

Benchmarks and standing

Synthesia is widely characterized in industry coverage as the principal enterprise AI avatar-video platform globally, with differentiation from HeyGen on the enterprise-trustworthy positioning. The reported 60,000-plus customers including Fortune 100 representation reflects enterprise customer traction.

Leadership

• Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder and CEO.
• Steffen Tjerrild, Co-Founder and COO.
• Lourdes Agapito, Co-Founder. UCL professor.
• Matthias Niessner, Co-Founder. TU Munich professor.

Funding and backers

• Earlier rounds (2017 to 2022): Approximately $66 million across seed, Series A, and Series B.
• Series C (2023): Round at approximately $1 billion valuation.
• Series D (early 2024): $180 million at approximately $2.1 billion valuation, with NVIDIA strategic-investor participation.

Industry position

Synthesia occupies a structurally distinctive position as the principal enterprise AI avatar-video platform globally, with the enterprise customer base, content-policy controls, and private-capital backing differentiating the company from peer offerings.

Strategic risks include intensifying competition from HeyGen on the enterprise avatar segment, from frontier-AI labs' video capabilities, and from peer video-generation Insurgents. Strategic strengths include the enterprise customer base, the founder-team computer-vision research credibility, and the private-capital base.

Competitive landscape

• HeyGen. Direct AI avatar-video competitor.
• Runway, Luma AI, Pika. Video-generation peers.
• ElevenLabs. AI voice-and-audio peer.

Outlook

• Continued enterprise customer expansion.
• The competitive dynamic with HeyGen.
• Continued senior research-and-engineering talent recruitment.
• Potential additional fundraising or IPO-track preparation.

Sources

• Synthesia official site. Product reference.
• Wikipedia: Synthesia. Comprehensive company history reference.