Rephrase.ai, an AI-focused (artificial intelligence) startup has raised $10.6 million (around 82.6 crore) as a part of its Series A funding round, led by Red Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Silver Lake, 8VC Ventures.
Founded in 2019 by IIT alumni Ashray Malhotra, Nisheeth Lahoti and Shivam Mangla, Rephrase.ai enables video creation capabilities for companies of all sizes. It uses deep learning to create digital avatars of actual humans that can be used for synthetic video content with only text as input.
The fresh funds will be used to strengthen its the company's capabilities by integrating product experiences. It is also looking to hire talent across departments including engineering, AI, product, sales and marketing.
Rephrase.ai will also expand its presence in North America, the company announced.
The startup had earlier raised $1.5 million in a seed round from Lightspeed and AV8 Ventures.
Rephrase.ai works with over 50 global companies currently, it said in a statement.
The company has developed digital avatars of celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Hritik Roshan, athletes like Virat Kohli, Saurav Ganguly, KL Rahul, among other influencers. It has characterized by advanced facial mapping, lip synchronization, voice, and expression capabilities, Rephrase.ai said in a statement.
“Given how people consume information today, scalable solutions to deliver personalized video are needed now more than ever,” said Carlos Angrisano, President at Red Ventures.
He added, “With the current mass customization of video content, our big bet is on the reinvention of the video production process, and that, as a business process technology, has incredible potential."