AI Video Editing Startup Raises $60M, Expands New York Research Efforts

AI-powered video editing platform Captions has raised $60 million in series C funding to expand New York-based research efforts.

Founded in 2021, the startup developed an AI-powered creative studio that allows users to create and edit video content more intuitively using AI tools.

Index Ventures led the round, with Adobe Ventures and HubSpot Ventures joining previous investors Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital in backing the startup. Academy Award-winning actor and musician Jared Leto was a notable angel investor, bringing Captions’ valuation to $500 million.

The latest round brings the startup’s total capital to $100 million and the company plans to use the cash to expand its machine learning team and research efforts in the Big Apple.

“We’re excited to share our plan to invest $100 million into advancing generative video research from New York City,” said Gaurav Misra, Captions’ co-founder and CEO. “We believe that New York is quickly emerging as the epicenter for AI, and look forward to expanding our team here and furthering our mission of democratizing video creation, so that anyone can effectively share their stories or ideas. We’re grateful for the continued support from our investors and community, and excited for our next chapter.”

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The startup built its AI-powered platform to let anyone create video content without prior editing experience or know-how.

Captions’ creative studio lets users produce high-quality video content, providing them with professional tools to enhance their videos, including captioning and voice dubbing.

The platform can automatically add subtitles to videos, compress clips to smaller sizes and correct eye contact using AI.

It also includes an ad generator powered by AI that can produce video ads up to 60 seconds long in more than 20 languages for marketing purposes.

The video editor platform also doesn’t output content with a watermark.

The startup recently added several new additions to its platform, including AI Creator, which lets users create their own videos featuring AI avatars and #AI Edit, which can edit an entire video from a handful of clicks.

The company said its new AI avatar tool is already being used to create social content and ads for “small and established businesses.”

To date, Captions’ mobile app has had 10 million downloads and is available through web browsers and  the platform is also available through web browsers and on Apple products. 

“Short-form video has become the most dominant content format, and Captions is uniquely positioned to transform how marketers create videos and engage with customers,” said Brandon Greer, head of HubSpot Ventures. “We're excited to support Captions as they enable businesses of all sizes to produce high-quality video content faster than ever.”

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The landscape for AI video generation and creation has gained significant momentum recently. 

Since OpenAI launched its Sora video generation model earlier this year, several companies are offering AI video and visual effects tools to Hollywood Studios, including VisionWorks Studios and DNEG Group’s Brahma.

While Captions focuses largely on editing videos, other players in the space include Runway with its video generation platform, and Stability AI, which added video generation capabilities to its Stable Diffusion model last November.