Rephrase.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that improves communication through synthetic media, has raised $10.6 million in Series A funding led by Red Ventures, a global VC (venture capital) firm that has invested in a variety of content companies. Silver Lake, 8VC, and other investors have also contributed to the funding round.
Rephrase.ai, backed by Lightspeed ventures, will use the new funds to improve capabilities by combining product experiences and hiring across verticals such as engineering, AI, product, sales, and marketing. The startup will also use the funds to expand its presence in North America. To date, Re.ai has received $12.1 million in funding, including the current round of fundraising.
The product of the startup democratizes video creation
Rephrase.ai is a deep-tech startup founded in 2019 by IIT alumni Ashray Malhotra, Nisheeth Lahoti, and Shivam Mangla that uses artificial intelligence to create videos.
The startup provides a product that democratizes video creation by making it available to businesses of all sizes and industries. The company uses deep learning to create digital avatars of actual humans that can be used to create synthetic video content using only text as input.
According to the company, synthetic video creation capabilities help marketing, communications, and content teams improve synergies. “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.
“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,” Angrisano added.
Rephrase.ai assists businesses in increasing customer engagement
Re.ai claims to have collaborated with over 50 global enterprises, including Castrol, Mondelez, and Xiaomi, to provide video creation capabilities. The company also stated that it provided the technology for one of Mondelez’s advertisements featuring Hindi film industry star Shah Rukh Khan.
According to Re.ai, it helps businesses increase customer engagement and communication efficiencies by improving conversion rates, click-through rates, content consumption, and adoption. Furthermore, the startup claims to assist companies in lowering their customer acquisition costs.
The startup received $1.5 million seed funding from Lightspeed Ventures and AV8 Ventures in 2020. It should be noted that Re.ai has no competition in the Indian AI space because there are no homegrown players with similar AI solution offerings.
However, it faces competition in the global AI sector from companies such as Israel-based Hour One. According to a report, the global AI industry is expected to reach $1,811.8 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 38.1 percent.
