The company seeks to replace outdated government systems with efficient, accessible, and user-friendly technology.

Led by NEA, with participation from 776, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Carpenter Capital, the round follows an $11 million seed funding co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, bringing Kaizen’s total funding to $35 million.

Kaizen’s technology is already in use across more than 50 government agencies in 17 states, reaching over 30 million residents. From state parks and DMVs to court systems and tax portals, the company is bolstering how people access essential services. 

Instead of fragmented systems that charge taxpayers billions through maintenance contracts and outdated software, Kaizen offers a single, unified platform. Governments can deploy new services within weeks, and residents can interact with them through a modern, intuitive interface.

“Kaizen is focused on the most fundamental American services that we use every day – the parks, transit, licensing, the everyday systems that quietly hold our communities together. 

“That clarity of mission has accelerated their growth and embodies exactly what the American Dynamism movement stands for to ensure our government is working at the speed of technology and serving our national interests,” said Katherine Boyle, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

For Kaizen’s CEO and co-founder, Nikhil Reddy, the company’s mission is a personal one. He believes Americans have settled for less when it comes to public service technology. 

“American citizens have been worn down into accepting second-class solutions when it comes to public service technology,” Reddy said. “Think about it, when was the last time you had a delightful experience booking a DMV appointment or reserving a campsite at a state park?”

He added, “If we raise our expectations of what public service technology can and should be, we can transform not just someone’s day or weekend, but how millions of people experience the impact of their taxpayer dollars.”

The timing of Kaizen’s rise coincides with a national push for digital reform. The federal government recently established a National Design Office to oversee a $10 billion effort aimed at modernising more than 25,000 public service portals. 

Kaizen’s tools align closely with this agenda, providing governments with the digital infrastructure to serve citizens with the same ease as private-sector platforms.

“In so many places around the world, public services run on technology that’s every bit as good as what we use in our daily lives — sometimes better. There’s no reason America shouldn’t aim just as high,” said Alexis Ohanian, founder and general partner at Seven Seven Six. 

“Kaizen is building the backbone for public services that reflect the beauty, ambition, and potential of the society they serve.”

Co-founder KJ Shah, who began his career in mergers and acquisitions, saw how legacy systems affected public-sector efficiency. “For decades, public servants have been forced to use stagnant software built through acquisitions, not product innovation. Our agencies need and deserve a platform built natively and designed to grow with them,” he stated.

Kaizen’s results are already visible. In Maryland, the company launched a new state park day-pass system in less than two months, a full month ahead of schedule. 

On Independence Day weekend, state parks operated at full capacity without major check-in delays, eliminating long-standing traffic jams and cutting overtime costs. Wildlife even began returning to calmer park environments.

“As a career public servant with 30 years at the Department of Natural Resources, I can say without hesitation that this initiative is one of the most meaningful changes we’ve implemented to expand and safeguard public access while ensuring equitable access to our public lands,” said Paul Peditto, assistant secretary of Land Resources, Maryland DNR.

Since early 2024, Kaizen’s customer base has expanded tenfold, while annual recurring revenue has surged ninefold year-on-year. The company has recently partnered with Maricopa County, Arizona; San Bernardino County, California; Suffolk County, New York; and the Cherokee Nation. 

Its workforce is expected to grow from 30 to 50 by early next year as it targets federal agencies and new sectors such as courts and licensing.

“Kaizen is tackling one of the toughest areas in technology and doing it with precision and purpose,” said Amit Kumar, partner at Accel. “Nikhil sees opportunity where others see complexity, and his team is proving that public services can be modern, efficient, and built around the people they serve.”

Andrew Schoen, Partner at NEA, added: “Public services impact hundreds of millions of people every day in the US alone, yet their technologies often lag far behind the seamless digital experiences modern consumers expect. We’re thrilled to back Nikhil, KJ, and the Kaizen team as they bring streamlined, thoughtfully-designed, AI-native experiences to government services, already reaching more than 30 million residents across 17 states and 50 agencies.”

Kaizen’s long-term goal is to become the primary technology partner for public institutions, one that creates reliable, beautifully designed systems citizens can trust.

Led by NEA, the round included existing investors such as GV, MMC Ventures, and FirstMark, as well as new participants including World Innovation Lab (WiL), Atlassian Ventures, and PSP Growth. 

This latest investment pushes Synthesia’s total funding to over $330 million and boosts its valuation to $2.1 billion, strengthening its works in generative AI for enterprise video creation.

This achievement will support Synthesia’s next phase of growth, enabling product development and talent growth, and drive the expansion of its innovative AI-powered video platform to meet the evolving needs of enterprises in several markets, including Japan, Australia, Europe and North America.

“This new investment will help us develop a new generation of AI-powered video experiences that are interactive, real-time, and personalized, offering possibilities we could have only imagined when we founded the company in 2017. I’m excited to bring these experiences to our over 60,000 customers, which range from the world’s largest brands to thousands of small businesses that use Synthesia to communicate internally and externally with unmatched engagement and efficiency,” said Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia.

“NEA has a long history of supporting transformative companies, and we’re excited to partner with Synthesia as they shape the future of AI-powered communication,” said Philip Chopin, managing director, NEA UK. 

“We believe Synthesia’s commitment to enterprise-grade solutions and its impressive traction with customers – 60% of Fortune 100 companies are Synthesia customers – sets the company apart in a rapidly evolving market.”

“We are excited to partner with Synthesia and believe its groundbreaking AI-powered video platform is poised to revolutionize the way organizations communicate and create content. Synthesia’s ability to democratize video creation and streamline communication empowers any organization to deepen interactions with employees and customers alike, no matter the language or location. We believe Synthesia has the potential to significantly impact industries around the globe, and we are already seeing much excitement from our corporate partners in Japan,” said Aki Jiang and Clifford Cohn, Principals, WiL.

“There are a lot of exciting developments in AI but few are able to demonstrate real value and application like Synthesia,” said Momei Qu, Managing Director, PSP Growth. “We are extremely excited to be partners on the next phase of Synthesia’s journey and continue supporting the company’s growth and impact going forward.”

According to Dealroom, Synthesia is now the largest generative AI media company in the UK by valuation, and the second largest in the overall AI category. The company has a global footprint, with offices in seven countries and customers across many markets and industries, generating just over half of its revenue from the United States.

Yoram Wijngaarde, founder and CEO of Dealroom said: “Synthesia’s Series D signals that European AI is picking up where they left off in 2024. AI startups accounted for over 25% of European venture capital last year, up from 15% just four years ago. In one of the most significant technological waves in decades, Synthesia stands out among the emerging AI unicorns reshaping the landscape from this side of the Atlantic.”

Science, Innovation, and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “Synthesia’s latest investment is a powerful demonstration of how our Plan for Change is encouraging innovation and driving growth in the UK’s thriving AI sector. This funding showcases the confidence investors have in British tech, especially following our newly announced blueprint for AI, and highlights the global leadership of UK-based companies in pioneering generative AI innovations. Synthesia’s success story underscores how the UK remains the ideal place for companies to grow, thrive and lead the next chapter of the digital revolution.”

Synthesia also announced the appointment of Peter Hill as chief technology officer. Hill brings deep technical expertise and a proven track record from previous roles as CEO and CPO at Wildfire Studios, as well as a 25-year tenure at Amazon and AWS, where he drove large-scale technical innovation and growth.

Over the past year, the company has made a series of strategic hires to its go-to-market, product, engineering, and R&D teams, including the appointment of a Chief Revenue Officer and a Chief of Staff. Synthesia now employs over 400 people across its offices in London (where it is headquartered), New York, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Zurich and Munich. 

Building the leading end-to-end AI video platform that delivers real business outcomes

In June 2024, the company announced it has begun the development of Synthesia 2.0, the world’s first enterprise AI video platform.

Synthesia 2.0 reinvents every aspect of the video production and distribution process to help businesses create and share AI generated videos at scale, for use cases such as learning and development, sales enablement, customer support, marketing, or business operations. The company has recently shipped several features and products as part of the new platform, including:

• Personal Avatars are custom AI avatars with a natural background and that speak over 30 languages. They can be created in minutes with a phone or laptop camera
• AI Screen Recorder is a Chrome extension that records a computer’s screen and creates professional videos in minutes which can then be edited further in Synthesia
• AI Video Assistant converts documents or web pages into videos, with powerful configuration options and feature-rich templates
• Multilingual Video Player is a responsive video player that supports playback for multiple translations of a single video, with chapters, captions, and intuitive player controls
• A video localization solution which includes 1-click translation for videos created in Synthesia, with easy-to-use versioning control, as well as AI-enhanced dubbing that translates content from any source with perfect lip-sync and natural-sounding voices
• Live Collaboration allows multiple people to work together on a video at the same time in real-time

Synthesia is a trusted partner for global organizations by enabling seamless, scalable, and secure video creation and distribution. Its solutions are used by some of the largest companies worldwide, empowering them to enhance both internal and external communications, with measurable improvements in engagement and efficiency.

“Our partnership with Synthesia has been instrumental in driving an engaging way to interact with both our internal and external customers. We have been active users of their platform and our use cases are continuing to expand at a rapid pace, thanks in part to the developments in place by the Synthesia team. For us, it’s also very much about the people and we couldn’t ask for better people to be managing their relationship with SAP.” – Lauren Maroney, Global VP of Strategic Engagement and Adoption at SAP.

“When we first discovered Synthesia, we recognized its potential to meet an immediate need. What we didn’t anticipate was how swiftly it would help us modernize, streamline, and enhance our global course practices and offerings. Synthesia has empowered us to efficiently educate and empower our colleagues. Each video we produce saves us time, costs, and resources, benefiting both internal and external stakeholders. We are excited about the continued evolution of Synthesia as we integrate it across all lines of business at Korn Ferry” – Adam Ortiz, Director of Global Technology Training at Korn Ferry

“In recent years, virtual facilitators have significantly replaced traditional human trainers, addressing key challenges such as the high cost, time intensity, and single-language limitations of live actor recordings. Now with Synthesia, we have democratized learning for our global workforce by transitioning from subtitled English-only master videos to culturally relevant, locally adapted content. The platform’s robust features—such as multilingual dubbing and customizable AI avatars—allow us to deliver engaging, scalable, and impactful video communication tailored to diverse audiences.” – Markus Lüken, Learning Technology Implementation Leader at Inter IKEA Group

“Synthesia has become a valuable component of Siemens’ digital communication and video production strategy. Its advanced platform, featuring speech-to-video transformation, multilingual support, digital avatar creation, and seamless brand integration, has optimized our content creation processes. These capabilities have enhanced our efficiency while elevating our ability to deliver high-quality, localized content with speed and precision, enabling impactful communication across our global organization.” – Sven Windsch, head of Technology Adoption at Siemens

A focus on security and compliance

With a growing portfolio of clients, Synthesia prioritizes compliance, trust, and security. Its platform meets rigorous enterprise standards, ensuring safe and responsible use of AI technology.

In September 2024, Synthesia became the world’s first AI video company to be certified by A-LIGN as ISO 42001 compliant, setting a new benchmark for security compliance in the generative AI industry.

Synthesia is also the only company in its class to conduct a comprehensive and public red team test of its AI video platform. The test took place in October 2024 and was organized by Humane Intelligence, a tech non-profit led by Dr Rumman Chowdhury, in collaboration with NIST, the US government agency responsible for innovation and industrial competitiveness.

The funding round also saw additional investments from NEA, Databricks Ventures, former Twitter VP Elad Gil, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch, and notably, Jeff Bezos.

Reports state that the funding has bolstered Perplexity AI to a post-money valuation of $520 million, a notable achievement for a company that has been operational since August 2022.

Founded by a team of engineers with backgrounds in AI, distributed systems, search engines, and databases, Perplexity AI has Aravind Srinivas as its CEO. Srinivas, a former researcher at OpenAI with expertise in language and generative AI models, has been of great impact in the company’s growth.

Perplexity AI differentiates itself from traditional search engines by offering a chatbot-like interface, enabling users to ask questions in natural language. The platform’s AI responds with comprehensive summaries containing source citations, allowing users to explore topics more deeply through follow-up queries.

Underpinning Perplexity’s offerings are a range of in-house and third-party generative AI models. The platform’s Pro plan, priced at $20 per month, provides subscribers with the flexibility to switch between models like Google’s Gemini, Mistra 7Bl, Anthropic’s Claude 2.1, and OpenAI’s GPT-4. This plan unlocks additional features such as image generation, personalized Copilot for searches, and file uploads, allowing users to analyze documents and images for relevant information.

Despite the impressive progress, there are concerns over the sustainability of generative AI search tools. Industry insiders point out the costs associated with running AI models, citing examples like OpenAI, which reportedly spent around $700,000 per day to meet ChatGPT demand.

Perplexity AI currently asserts an annual recurring revenue ranging between $5 million and $10 million. However, questions about the company’s longevity persist, with challenges such as potential misuse, misinformation, and copyright issues associated with web scraping practices for model training data.

Aravind Srinivas remains optimistic, highlighting Perplexity’s focus on delivering a superior search experience with advanced filtering and discovery options. The company is also branching into serving its own generative AI models through an API available to Pro customers.

With over $100 million raised to date and a reported ten million active monthly users, Perplexity AI is set to expand its 39-person team and enhance product functionality. Investors, including Jeff Bezos, continue to express confidence in the company’s vision, despite the uncertainties surrounding the future of generative AI and consumer search. 

Cack Wilhelm, a general partner at IVP, emphasized the unique ability of Perplexity’s CEO to balance a grand long-term vision with relentless product development, positioning the company to tackle the fundamental challenges of search in the digital age.