Nvidia and of the alphabet VC Arms has backed British AI startup Synthesia with a $200 million funding round, amid a surge in private investment in promising young technology companies looking to capitalize on the AI boom.
The round valued Synthesia at $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’s nearly double the company’s price a year ago, when it raised $180 million at a valuation of $2.1 billion.
Synthesia develops video generation tools for businesses used for internal and external communications.
Synthesia co-founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli said in a statement that the latest funding round is “about expanding” the company’s vision of reducing content production costs with AI and providing “better, more engaging ways for organizations to communicate and learn” with AI video.
“We are seeing a rare convergence of two major changes: technology changes that improve the capabilities of AI agents, and market changes that make upskilling and internal knowledge sharing a board-level priority,” he added.
As part of the financing, Synthesia will partner with Nasdaq to facilitate a secondary sale of employee stock at a valuation of $4 billion.
European AI startups raised a record $21.4 billion in private funding in 2025, according to deal aggregation platform Dealroom.
That year, U.S. AI companies raised $162.7 billion, including about $70 billion raised by just three companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.
This momentum will continue into 2026. In recent weeks, CNBC reported that OpenAI was in talks with a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East for a round totaling about $50 billion, Anthropic signed a term sheet for a new $10 billion round, and xAI raised $20 billion.
Synthesia’s new funding will double its deployment of agent capabilities within AI-generated videos, allowing users to interact with videos in real-time.
Rather than passively consuming training materials, AI video allows employees to explore scenarios through role-play and receive customized explanations, the company said.
Founded in 2017, Synthesia has become one of the UK tech’s hottest AI startups and has been courted by politicians with a view to expansion. The company’s new office, which opened in July, was attended by both the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the then Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle.
Rachel Reeves, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “Synthesia is a British success story, creating new jobs and opportunities for this country.” “This shows that by supporting innovators to start, expand and stay in the UK through improved access to capital and generous tax breaks, we can turn the promise of AI into better-paid jobs and long-term growth across the UK.”
Synthesia’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has reached $150 million and is expected to surpass the $200 million mark by 2026, chief financial officer Daniel Kim told CNBC.
