Venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners and private equity firm Silver Lake have exited an India- and US-based company that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology for video creation.
The two investors exited as part of US-based Adobe Inc.’s acquisition of Rephrase.ai, which had earlier raised nearly $12 million across multiple funding rounds.
“Exciting news! Rephrase.ai is getting acquired by a pioneering creative tech company, ushering us into the new era of Generative AI,” said Shivam Mangla, a co-founder of Rephrase.AI, on microblogging platform X, erstwhile Twitter.
Rephrase.ai is Adobe’s first startup acquisition in India and also its first buyout of a generative AI firm. The tech giant bought the company to leverage its ability to provide AI-powered video content tools to its customers.
Founded in 2019 by IIT alumni Ashray Malhotra, Nisheeth Lahoti and Mangla, Rephrase.ai helps companies create videos using generative AI. The company claims that it uses deep learning to create digital avatars of actual humans used for synthetic video content with only text as input.
The company had last raised $10.6 million in a Series A round led by Red Ventures and joined by Silver Lake and 8VC Ventures. It had earlier raised $1.5 million in a seed round from Lightspeed and AV8 Ventures.
All the investors of Repharase.AI have reportedly been provided a cash exit by Adobe. The founders of the company will be paid in cash and Adobe stock. The startup’s employees will join Abobe.
Mangla claimed that the platform was used by more than 50,000 users. “As we begin this new chapter in a larger organisation, the possibilities are endless,” he said.