Synthesia is valued at $4 billion, allowing cash payments to employees

Synthesia, a British startup that helps companies create interactive training videos through its AI platform, has raised a $200 million Series E round of funding, boosting its valuation to $4 billion from $2.1 billion a year ago.

Unlike other AI startups that still have a long way to go before becoming profitable, Synthesia has found a profitable business by revolutionizing corporate training thanks to its AI-generated avatars. The London-based company, which counts enterprise customers including Bosch, Merck and SAP, had annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $100 million in April 2025.

This milestone explains why Synthesia’s venture backers are literally doubling. The Series E, which nearly doubled its valuation, was led by existing investor Google Ventures (GV), with participation from several other previous backers, including Series B lead Kleiner Perkins, Series C lead Accel, Series D lead New Enterprise Associates (NEA), NVIDIA’s venture capital arm NVentures, Air Street Capital and PSP Growth.

In addition to ongoing support, this round will see participation from both new and exiting investors. On the one hand, Matt Miller’s VC firm Evantic and secretive VC firm Hedosophia are joining the cap table as new entrants. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reports that Synthesia will work with Nasdaq to facilitate employee secondary sales.

To be clear, Synthesia is not yet listed. Nasdaq does not act as a public exchange in this operation, but rather as a private market facilitator helping early team members convert their shares into cash. These employee stock sales often occur outside this framework, but are usually at prices below or above the company’s official value, sometimes raising the eyebrows of other shareholders. This process ensures that any sale is tied to the same $4 billion valuation as Synthesia’s Series E, while the company maintains an element of control.

“This assistance is first and foremost about our people,” Synthesia CFO Daniel Kim told TechCrunch. “This provides meaningful opportunities for our employees to access liquidity and share in the value they create, while continuing to operate as a private company focused on long-term growth.”

This long-term growth for Synthesia includes embracing the AI ​​agent trend beyond expressive video. According to a press release, the company is developing an AI agent that allows customers’ employees to “ask questions, explore scenarios through role-play, and receive personalized explanations to interact with company knowledge in a more intuitive and human way.”

The company said the initial pilot received positive feedback from customers who reported higher engagement and faster knowledge transfer compared to traditional formats. This positive response explains why Synthesia is now planning to make agents a “key strategic focus” in which it will invest alongside further product improvements to its existing platforms.

Although it hasn’t released revenue forecasts, the company hopes its platform can provide a welcome answer to the challenges businesses face trying to properly train their workforce despite rapid change. “We are seeing the rare convergence of two major changes: a technological shift that is making AI agents more capable, and a market shift that is making technology improvements and internal knowledge sharing a board-level priority,” Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, said in a statement.

Since AI wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card except Riparbelli, we’ve seen the board care more about its employees. Together with co-founder Synthesia COO Steffen Tjerrild, Riparbelli took the lead in implementing a secondary sale to allow employees to share in the unicorn company’s success. Founded in 2017, Synthesia now has over 500 team members and is headquartered in 20,000 square feet in London with additional offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, New York and Zurich.

While unusual for a UK startup, this joint secondary sale is neither the first nor the last, Alexandru Voica, head of corporate affairs and policy at Synthesia, told TechCrunch. “I think this type of structured cross-border employee liquidity could become increasingly common as (UK-based) private companies remain private for longer, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see others doing it on Nasdaq or elsewhere,” he predicted.