Be part of prime executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to listen to how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for achievement. Be taught Extra
Captions, an AI-powered video creation app for iOS that launched in 2021 and counts greater than three million customers to this point, right now introduced a $25 million in Collection B funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with extra funding supplied by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and SV Angel.
The corporate has now raised a complete $40 million. It was based by Gaurav Misra, former head of design engineering at Snap and a former software program growth engineer (II) at Microsoft.
Captions initially carved its area of interest as a digital camera utility catering to “speaking movies”, the place creators interact with the digital camera instantly. At the side of its funding announcement, the corporate has introduced a rebranding and new look that Misra wrote of in a blog post: “We consider correctly represents the defining traits of Captions.”
These traits embrace plenty of options, from AI-powered redubbing of a speaker’s phrases into one other language whereas sustaining the sound of their voice, to human-like AI voiceovers, to AI powered brief clip manufacturing from an extended piece of video to distinctive, authentic, AI-created royalty-free music for movies.
Reworking to a holistic inventive suite
Evolving from its roots, Captions has since turn into a holistic inventive suite, main the cost in reworking content material creation by state-of-the-art AI functionalities, leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 massive language mannequin (LLM) and an AI Eye Contact characteristic developed with Nvidia.
“We acknowledged the necessity amongst creators utilizing teleprompters and off-screen scripts and collaborated with Nvidia to develop the attention contact correction characteristic particularly for this use case,” Gaurav Misra, Captions’ cofounder and CEO mentioned in assertion supplied to VentureBeat by way of spokesperson. “Upon its launch earlier this 12 months, it grew to become an instantaneous hit, and now many different corporations are creating comparable know-how impressed by Captions.”
The AI adjusts a video host’s gaze in actual time, creating the phantasm that they’re making eye contact with the digital camera.
Vital traction amongst enterprise customers
Whereas Captions is basically consumer-focused, it has garnered traction amongst enterprise customers as properly, particularly these concerned in social media administration, content material advertising and marketing, and development advertising and marketing.
The platform appeals to a various viewers together with, however not restricted to, influencers, realtors, health trainers, musicians and gross sales professionals.
Notable accounts using Captions embrace the Disney-owned sports activities community ESPN and its commentator Omar Raja, “Mr. Fantastic” of Shark Tank fame, Twitch’s founder Justin Kan and the influencer Pointless Innovations.
Everett Randle, a accomplice at Kleiner Perkins, lauded Captions, stating: “AI is redefining how digital merchandise are created, and Captions has emerged because the main AI-powered platform for video content material. Tens of millions of customers have already leveraged it to inform their tales and have interaction audiences. Gaurav and the Captions group have deep empathy for and understanding of creators from their time at Snap that we consider is important in constructing inside this new period of AI-enabled product growth. We’re thrilled to steer Captions’ Collection B and assist the creation of the AI-powered inventive studio.”
Mike Vernal from Sequoia Capital additionally heaped reward on Misra and Captions in a press release, writing: “Captions use of AI for video manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the studio expertise for right now’s creator economic system. The person enthusiasm and loyalty Captions has skilled this early on is a transparent indication of their future success.”