Thesis
Video content has become a dominant force on the internet, with its share of global internet traffic rising from 50% in 2012 to 82.5% in 2023. 3.5 billion individuals worldwide engaged with digital videos in 2023, a substantial rise from the 1.5 billion online video users in 2016. As videos become more popular, it increases the need for tools around video production and consumption.
The surge in video consumption is significantly influenced by platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. As of 2023, YouTube has over 2.5 billion active users, with viewers collectively watching 1 billion hours of video daily. TikTok has rapidly grown to 1.5 billion monthly active users, with daily video views surpassing 1 billion. Instagram, with over 2 billion monthly active users, has seen substantial engagement through its Reels feature.
The shift towards video-centric content has had an impact on marketing strategies and accessibility needs. From 2016 to 2023, firms adopting video as a marketing strategy grew by 25%. Additionally, reports from 2024 indicate that 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound, emphasizing the essential role that captioning videos plays in enhancing accessibility and engagement for videos.
Captions addresses the need for accessible, accurate, and scalable video creation. Initially, the company focused on providing multilingual and context-aware captioning, enhancing video SEO and accessibility while enabling content creators to reach audiences globally on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Over time, the vision for Captions expanded to become a generative AI video platform, providing customizable AI Avatars as part of a creative platform for generative video. This approach streamlines content production by reducing the learning curve associated with filming, editing, and distributing videos.
Founding Story
Captions was founded in 2021 by Gaurav Misra (CEO) and Dwight Churchill (COO). Misra, born in Boston and raised in India, developed an early passion for programming. He returned to Boston for college at Boston University, majoring in computer science. His early career included roles at startups like Lattice Engines and a stint at Snap, where he led the Design Engineering Team and worked on projects such as Snap Map. Churchill gained product experience as a software developer at Goldman Sachs and Klaviyo, contributing to the launch of Marcus, Goldman Sachs’ consumer finance platform.
Source: Captions
Misra and Churchill first met at Localytics in 2016, where they worked on separate teams but stayed in touch after moving to New York City. They often exchanged ideas about potential startups and opportunities in the growing video space, especially with the evolution of TikTok from dance videos to a wider variety of content.
In early 2021, they launched a prototype for a “talking-video” social network. The app addressed a significant pain point: the time-consuming process of manually transcribing videos. It became an unexpected hit, reaching the top of the App Store within days. Misra and Churchill were personally funding the project, spending over $10K a month while seeking investors. As they further explored their options, they pivoted to a photo-sharing app to capitalize on Instagram’s move towards video. This pivot secured a Series A round after the app reached between 50K and 60K daily active users.
Unexpectedly, their original talking video app, put behind a paywall to cover operational costs, generated $500K without further development. The talking video app had been left on Misra’s personal Apple account, with no active management and thousands of unanswered support tickets. Misra and Churchill began weighing the pros and cons between the social media-based photo-sharing app and the talking video app, discussing their findings with the team and investors. This ultimately led to a strategic pivot back to the talking video app. The founders decided to refocus on their original concept, leveraging AI and ML to simplify video creation. Misra described this moment as a realization that all his career skills—machine learning, design, and rapid prototyping—aligned perfectly with the app’s potential.
In November 2024, Captions made a number of significant moves including hiring Drew Jaegle as Head of AI and acquiring AlpacaML. Jaegle, formerly a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, led efforts in multimodal representation and generative models for music and creative tools, contributing to projects like the Perceiver architectures and the AI music generation model, Lyria.
The acquisition of AlpacaML, an AI startup known for its rendering engine that transforms visuals into early concept sketches, demonstrated Captions’ commitment to building a high-quality AI research team. AlpacaML’s CEO, Will Buchwalter, joined Captions as a research engineer, leading efforts to scale model training. Several team members from AlpacaML joined Captions’ product engineering teams. The expanded team, under Jaegle’s leadership, will focus on developing next-generation foundation models, particularly in generating talking humans and beyond.
Product
Source: Captions
Captions offers a suite of AI-powered tools designed for video creation and editing. Its product lineup addresses various aspects of content creation, from initial concept to final production, making professional-quality video accessible to creators across skill levels. The platform is available on iOS, Android, Web, and MacOS.
Captions' suite of tools is designed to work together, creating a comprehensive video production workflow from content creation to distribution. This allows users to take a video from concept to publication entirely within the Captions ecosystem, addressing the job-to-be-done of enabling the effortless creation of professional-looking videos for various purposes.
AI Avatar Generator
The AI Avatar Generator enables users to produce videos featuring hyper-realistic digital human representations without the necessity of physical filming. This tool offers extensive customization options, allowing users to adjust camera angles, lighting, clothing, and backgrounds to meet specific requirements.
A notable feature of the AI Avatar Generator is its support for 28 languages, including French, Hindi, Japanese, and Spanish, facilitating content creation for a global audience. The platform provides a diverse selection of avatars, each designed to appeal to various social media demographics and content creation needs.
Source: The Augmented Advantage
This tool has diverse applications across various sectors. Real estate agents use it to create engaging property tour videos, businesses can employ it for product demonstrations, and educational institutions develop online course content, highlighting its versatility in meeting different content creation requirements.
AI Video Editor
The AI Video Editor is designed to streamline the video editing process for users of varying skill levels. This tool employs artificial intelligence to automate many aspects of video editing, including trimming, transitions, and effects application. The editor's interface is designed to be intuitive, allowing users to edit complete videos based on chosen styles without the need for extensive technical expertise.
A key feature of the AI Video Editor is its ability to automatically identify and trim inactive portions of video footage, potentially saving users significant time in the editing process. The tool also offers a range of pre-set styles and effects that can be applied with a single click, catering to users who seek quick, professional-looking results. Additionally, the editor supports various video formats and resolutions, accommodating content creation for different platforms and devices.
The AI Video Editor has found applications across various content creation domains. In the B2B world, companies are exploring the AI Video Editor’s potential to enhance content creation workflows. It assists in producing product demonstrations, customer testimonials, and educational materials more efficiently, thereby reducing production time and costs.
AI Ad Generator
The AI Ad Generator by Captions is designed to streamline the creation of video advertisements, enabling users to produce multiple ads more efficiently. Users can input product links, images, videos, and text descriptions, with the system automatically extracting relevant assets from web pages when provided with a product link. This functionality simplifies the ad creation process, particularly for ecommerce and digital marketing professionals. The tool supports over 20 languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese, facilitating global advertising campaigns.
The AI Ad Generator is primarily suited for businesses aiming to optimize their advertising strategies efficiently. It allows marketers to more quickly test multiple ad concepts by generating up to five AI ads based on a single product link and description. Additionally, the system’s ability to create ads that emulate user-generated content style could potentially enhance engagement rates, as such content often resonates well with social media audiences.
Online Video Editor
Source: Techcrunch
Captions' Online Video Editor is a tool that incorporates AI-powered features to streamline video creation. The editor supports various video file formats, including MP4, MOV, AVI, WAV, FLV, GIF, MKV, and Quicktime. It offers standard editing functions such as importing multiple videos, trimming, splitting clips, and removing unwanted sections.
A key feature is the AI-powered subtitle generation in over 28 languages, with customizable styles for font, color, and size. The editor also includes a one-click dubbing feature for language translation. These capabilities aim to expand content reach to global audiences and cater to viewers who prefer watching videos with sound off.
The tool is designed for various use cases. For instance, small businesses like restaurants can use it to create videos showcasing their chefs and dishes, while dental clinics might generate videos about their services using the tool as their own AI Social Media Manager.
Subtitle Generator
Source: aimusicpreneur
Captions' Subtitle Generator is a tool designed to automatically transform audio content into captions and subtitles. The service supports 28 languages, enabling content creators to reach a more global audience. This feature aims to enhance video accessibility and expand potential viewership across linguistic barriers.
A key aspect of the Subtitle Generator is its customization options. Users can modify font styles to align with their content's tone and visual aesthetics. This flexibility allows creators to maintain brand consistency or set a specific mood for their videos through typography choices.
The tool's primary function is to streamline the process of adding subtitles to video content, potentially saving time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manual transcription and translation.
AI Eye Contact Correction
Source: Captions
The AI Eye Contact Correction feature is a significant innovation in Captions' suite of tools, designed to enhance viewer engagement by creating the impression of direct camera engagement in post-production. This technology allows users to maintain apparent eye contact with the camera even when reading from a script or looking away during recording.
Misra explained the feature's origin as a solution to challenges involved with teleprompters. Initial attempts to use AI-powered teleprompters still resulted in noticeable eye movement, prompting the development of the eye contact correction tool. Misra also mentions that this feature has gained significant traction since its release, often leading to viral moments.
The AI Eye Contact Correction tool has potential applications across various sectors where maintaining direct eye contact is crucial for engagement. These could include news broadcasting, where anchors heavily rely on teleprompters; content creation for platforms like YouTube, allowing creators to read scripts while appearing to maintain audience connection; corporate communications for virtual meetings and investor presentations; remote education to enhance student engagement; and virtual sales and customer service to potentially improve customer trust.
AI Clip Generator
Captions' AI Clip Generator is a tool designed to extract engaging segments from longer videos. The system analyzes videos ranging from four minutes to two hours in length, identifying up to ten clips that it deems most likely to capture audience attention. This feature aims to streamline the process of repurposing long-form content for short-form platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
The tool offers flexibility in clip duration, allowing users to either let the AI determine the optimal length or select from preset options of 30, 60, or 90 seconds. It supports over 20 languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese, facilitating content creation for global audiences. Captions markets this feature as a time-saving solution, suggesting it can help content creators expand their reach across multiple platforms without the need for manual editing. The AI's speaker detection feature ensures that the relevant person remains on screen throughout the clip, potentially enhancing the coherence of the extracted segments.
While the tool is primarily designed for videos featuring speakers on camera, its applications could extend to various content types. Potential use cases might include podcast producers creating promotional snippets, educators extracting key points from lectures, or businesses highlighting crucial moments from corporate presentations.
Captions' Video Translator
Captions' Video Translator is designed to break down language barriers in video content by offering AI-powered dubbing capabilities. The tool supports over 28 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. A key feature of this translator is its ability to preserve the unique characteristics of the original voice while translating the content into different languages.
The Video Translator aims to streamline the process of creating multilingual content, potentially saving time and resources compared to traditional dubbing methods. It offers users the ability to translate their videos while maintaining their original voice, which could be particularly useful for content creators looking to expand their reach to global audiences without losing their personal touch.
Source: Captions
The potential applications for Captions' Video Translator in global business are significant. Multinational corporations could use this tool to localize training videos for their global workforce, potentially leading to improved information retention and cost savings. In marketing, companies might leverage the technology to create multilingual product demonstrations and tutorials, enhancing customer understanding and potentially increasing sales. For customer support, the tool could be used to translate instructional videos, reducing the burden on support teams and improving customer experience. However, while AI translation has made significant advancements, it's important to note that professional review may still be necessary for critical communications to ensure accuracy and cultural appropriateness.
Background Noise Remover
Captions' Background Noise Remover is an AI-powered tool designed to enhance audio quality by automatically eliminating unwanted background noise from video recordings. The feature aims to transform voice recordings to sound as if they were captured in a professional studio, even in noisy environments. It supports various video formats, including MOV, MKV, AVI, MP4, GIF, QuickTime, and FLV. Users can apply or disable the Denoise feature with a tap, making it accessible for those without technical expertise. The noise removal process doesn't degrade video quality, and users have access to advanced export options, including HD quality, various frame rates (24, 25, 30, and 60 FPS), and different bitrate settings. This combination of features aims to provide users with a professional-grade audio enhancement tool that's accessible and easy to use.
Source: Captions
The Background Noise Remover has potential applications across various sectors where audio quality is crucial. Content creators such as podcasters and vloggers could use this tool to enhance the audio quality of their recordings, especially in less-than-ideal environments. In the realm of remote work, professionals could utilize this feature to improve audio clarity during video conferences, potentially enhancing communication effectiveness. Online educators could benefit when creating instructional videos or conducting virtual classes, ensuring their voice comes through clearly to students. In journalism, field reporters could use this feature to improve the quality of on-location recordings, potentially enhancing the clarity of news reports.
Market
Customer
Content creators represent a core segment of Captions’ user base. The platform is designed to assist these creators in efficiently producing “talking videos” with features such as automatic captioning, streamlined editing, and language translation. By simplifying the video production process, Captions caters to those who may lack advanced editing expertise or operate under time constraints. This approach has contributed to Captions’ widespread adoption, reflected in the platform’s 10 million global downloads and the creation of approximately 3.5 million videos each month by July 2024.
Beyond individual creators, Captions is designed to assist consumer-focused companies in their sales, marketing, and communication efforts. CEO Gaurav Misra envisions these tools being utilized primarily in these areas, offering businesses the ability to create professional-quality video content efficiently. This capability enhances customer engagement and streamlines marketing initiatives.
The platform's language translation capabilities enable users to transcend language barriers, facilitating connections across different linguistic backgrounds. This feature is beneficial for businesses aiming to reach global audiences and for individuals seeking cross-cultural communication. Notably, The New York Times highlighted Captions’ role in fostering personal relationships through its language translation tools.
Market Size
Captions operates in a number of markets including AI-powered video editing, captioning and subtitling solutions, and AI avatar generation.
In the AI video generator/editor market, the global market was valued at approximately $600 million in 2023 and is projected to reach $9.3 billion by 2033, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.7% from 2024 to 2033. This growth is driven by increasing demand for personalized video content, the rising adoption of AI technologies in media production, and the need for efficient video editing solutions across various industries.
Regarding captioning and subtitling solutions, the market was estimated at $5.7 billion in 2023 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of over 8.2% between 2024 and 2032, reaching $11.5 billion by 2032. Factors contributing to this growth include increasing global content consumption, a growing emphasis on accessibility in media, and rising demand for multilingual content.
In the AI avatars market, the market was estimated at approximately $5.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to register a CAGR of over 30% between 2024 and 2032. This expansion is attributed to the growing adoption of virtual assistants and chatbots, increasing demand for personalized digital experiences, and the rising use of AI avatars in gaming, entertainment, and customer service.
Combining these markets, Captions’ total addressable market in 2023 was approximately $12.2 billion. This figure is expected to grow substantially over the next decade, reflecting the projected industry trends mentioned above.
Competition
Captions operates in a space where the ability to quickly produce high-quality, engaging video content is increasingly valuable for businesses and creators alike. The market is relatively fragmented, with various companies offering specialized features or targeting specific use cases within the broader video creation ecosystem. The rise of social media platforms like TikTok, which had 1.2 billion monthly active users worldwide in 2023, is driving demand for AI-powered video editing tools.
Captions differentiates itself through its focus on simplifying the entire video creation process, from ideation to final edit, with a particular emphasis on effective communication. Its competitive advantage lies in its comprehensive suite of AI-driven tools that cover recording assistance, editing capabilities, and generative video creation. The company's strategy of continually expanding its AI avatar offerings and planned features like avatar customization and multi-avatar interactions aims to build a moat against competitors.
Adobe
Adobe has been a dominant player in the video editing market since launching Adobe Premiere in 1991. Since then, Adobe Premiere has grown to an estimated 30 million users and $4.3 billion in revenue as of 2024. In October 2024, Adobe announced the addition of Generative Extend in Premiere where the frame of a video could be automatically extended using generative AI. Since then, Adobe has also launched text-to-video and image-to-video features as part of its Firefly Video Model, and generative B-roll all as part of its generative AI workspace.
Runway
Runway is a generative AI video editing platform founded in 2018. Runway’s platform includes video editing, and generative AI capabilities including text-to-video generation, generative visual effects, multi-motion brushing, camera controls, and inpainting. In June 2023, Runway announced a $141 million extension to its Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, from investors including Google, NVIDIA, and Salesforce. Runway has raised a total of $236.5 million in funding as of February 2025.
Synthesia
Founded in 2017, Synthesia is an AI video generation platform that allows users to create videos with AI avatars. In January 2025, Synthesia raised a $180 million Series D at a valuation north of $2 billion, up from $1 billion in June 2023. As of February 2025, the company had raised $336.6 million in total funding from investors including NEA, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, and GV. Like Captions, Synthesia offers AI-powered video creation tools, but it has more of a focus on corporate training and multilingual content creation.
VEED.IO
Founded in 2018, VEED.IO is an AI-powered online video editing platform that simplifies video creation for content creators, businesses, and marketers. In February 2022, it raised a $35 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital, with an estimated valuation of $140 million to $210 million. One unverified estimate of the company’s revenue in 2024 was $13.6 million. VEED.IO offers a comprehensive suite of video editing tools, including subtitle generation, audio manipulation, and video effects, positioning itself as an all-in-one platform for video content creation.
D-ID
D-ID, founded in 2017, specializes in AI-driven creative media, particularly in creating photorealistic avatars and video reenactment technology. The company raised a $25 million Series B round in March 2022, bringing its total funding to $48 million with an approximate valuation of $100 million - $150 million. D-ID's investors include Macquarie Capital, Pitango, and AXA Venture Partners. While both D-ID and Captions offer AI avatar creation, D-ID has a broader focus on applications beyond video editing, including e-learning and AI assistants.
Business Model
Source: Captions
Captions operates primarily on a freemium subscription model, offering multiple pricing tiers to cater to different user needs. However, pricing for each plan isn’t explicitly mentioned, though the implied pricing varies depending on the platform used.
Scale Plan: This plan offers everything in the Max plan plus 3.6K monthly credits. It is designed for users who need more video creation capabilities and includes features like priority support and API access.
Enterprise Plan: Tailored for businesses with specific needs, this plan includes all Scale features and offers additional benefits like custom plans, dedicated customer success managers, and advanced user management
Traction
When Captions launched in 2021, it was seeing 10K daily active users within six months of launch. In April 2022, Captions was seeing between 50K and 60K daily active users at that time. By June 2023, Captions reported that more than 1 million videos were being created on the platform each month and that a total of 3 million creators had utilized the platform. By June 2024, the platform had expanded to 10 million global creators, with users producing over 3 million videos monthly. These figures underscore Captions’ rapid user adoption and engagement, with both the number of creators and monthly video production more than tripling within a year.
Valuation
In June 2024, Captions closed a $60 million Series C funding round led by Index Ventures, bringing the company's total capital raised to over $100 million, valuing Captions at $500 million. The round saw participation from returning investors Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. Notable new investors joining this round include Adobe Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and actor Jared Leto, adding strategic value beyond capital.
Key Opportunities
Expansion into AI-Driven Real-Time Captioning
One opportunity for Captions is the development and implementation of advanced real-time captioning solutions. The emergence of AI-driven systems capable of processing speech in real-time and converting it to text almost instantaneously represents a meaningful advancement for live events. This technology offers a substantial improvement over traditional methods, providing near-instantaneous captions even in noisy environments.
For Captions, this presents an opportunity to expand its services into live broadcasting, webinars, and virtual events, where accurate, real-time captions are essential for accessibility and engagement. By leveraging its AI expertise, Captions could develop a cutting-edge real-time captioning system that outperforms existing solutions in terms of speed, accuracy, and adaptability to various accents and speaking styles.
The company could target industries such as news broadcasting, sports events, and corporate communications, where the demand for high-quality, real-time captioning is growing. By offering a superior real-time captioning solution, Captions could capture a significant share of this expanding market and establish itself as the go-to provider for live captioning services.
Integration with Immersive Technologies
Captions has an opportunity to integrate its captioning technology with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms. As these immersive technologies become more mainstream in industries such as education, gaming, and entertainment, Captions could position itself as a leader in providing accessible captioning solutions for these experiences. Its AI-driven captions could offer real-time transcription and translation within virtual environments, making content accessible to a broader audience.
This integration aligns with the growing trend of enhancing accessibility across all forms of media. By capitalizing on this opportunity, Captions could open up new markets and establish itself as an essential component of the AR and VR ecosystem. The company's expertise in AI-powered captioning could be leveraged to create seamless, context-aware captions that enhance user experience in immersive environments without disrupting the sense of presence.
Key Risks
Consumer Trust & Adoption
One risk for Captions lies in potential consumer skepticism towards AI-powered products. Recent studies have shown that the use of AI in products and services can decrease emotional trust and purchasing intention among consumers. This lack of trust often stems from concerns about privacy, security, and the perceived complexity of AI-powered products.
Furthermore, research indicates that explicitly labeling a product as AI-powered can lower customers' intention to buy across various categories, including household appliances and services. For Captions, this consumer hesitancy could translate into slower adoption rates and limited market penetration, potentially hindering its growth trajectory and market share.
Competitive Landscape
The generative video market is becoming increasingly competitive, both across startups and incumbents. The increased competitive leverage of improvements in cutting-edge generative image models may make the market even harder to compete in. Captions will have to continue to differentiate itself as a platform. This could pose challenges, as the company could either lean into its core competency around captioning or further invest in its platform expansion to a broader video editing platform. Both come with potential risks.
One potential threat for Captions comes from generalist AI models more broadly. For example, in September 2024 Warner Bros. announced it was working with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform for closed captioning across its Max streaming service. This doesn’t extend to Captions’ broader AI editing capabilities, but it represents how the significant investment in AI models across a broad set of companies could threaten different aspects of the company’s business.
Summary
Captions operates at the intersection of video creation and AI-driven tools, catering to a global audience of content creators and businesses. Originally founded as a video captioning platform, Captions has expanded its offerings to include video generation, editing, AI-powered avatars, and multilingual captioning. Positioned in a rapidly expanding market, the company capitalizes on trends like video consumption, personalization, and accessibility, while leveraging advanced AI technologies. With a freemium business model and meaningful user traction, Captions is well-positioned for continued growth, although it faces risks related to consumer trust, competition, and maintaining technological relevance.
