Nvidia And The alphabet Venture capital arms have backed UK AI start-up Synthesia in a $200 million funding round, amid private investment in promising tech startups looking to capitalize on the AI boom.
The round sees Synthesia reach a valuation of $4 billion and was led by Alphabet’s GV, with participation from Evantic, Hedosophia, Nvidia’s NVentures, Accel, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Air Street Capital. That nearly doubles the price the startup reached a year ago, when it secured $180 million in funding and a valuation of $2.1 billion.
Synthesia develops video generation tools for businesses for internal and external communications.
Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, said in a statement that the funding round aims to “expand” its vision of AI reducing the cost of content creation and AI video providing “a better, more engaging way for organizations to communicate and learn.”
“We are seeing a rare convergence of two major shifts: a technological shift with increasingly capable AI agents, and a market shift where upskilling and internal knowledge sharing have become board-level priorities,” he added.
As part of the raise, Synthesia will facilitate a secondary sale of shares to employees in partnership with NASDAQ at a valuation of $4 billion.
European AI startups raised a record $21.4 billion in private funding in 2025, according to deal-counting platform Dealroom.
U.S. AI companies raised $162.7 billion that year, but that includes about $70 billion raised by just three companies, OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.
This momentum has continued into 2026. In recent weeks, CNBC reported that OpenAI was in talks with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds for a round that could total about 50 billion dollarsAnthropic signed a term sheet for a new A round of funding of 10 billion dollars And xAI raised $20 billion.
Synthesia’s new funding will allow it to double down on deploying agentic capabilities in videos created by its AI, which allow users to interact with them in real time.
AI video allows employees to explore scenarios through role-playing and receive personalized explanations rather than passively consuming training materials, the company said.
Founded in 2017, Synthesia has become one of the most high-profile AI startups in the UK tech sector and has courted politicians as it seeks to expand. London Mayor Sadiq Khan and then-Technology Minister Peter Kyle were present at the opening of the company’s new offices in July.
“Synthesia is a success story in the UK, creating new jobs and opportunities in this country,” said UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. “This shows that by helping innovators start, grow and stay in the UK through better access to finance and generous tax relief, we can turn the promise of AI into better paid jobs and long-term growth across the UK.”
Synthesia has reached $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and hopes to surpass the $200 million mark by 2026, CFO Daniel Kim told CNBC.
