Synthesia Hits $4B Valuation, Lets Employees Make Cash

British startup Synthesia, whose AI platform helps companies create interactive video tutorials, has raised a $200 million Series E funding round that brings its valuation to $4 billion — up from $2.1 billion just a year ago.

Unlike some other AI startups that are still far from turning a profit, Synthesia has found a profitable business in transforming corporate training thanks to AI-generated avatars. With corporate clients including Bosch, Merck and SAP, the London-based company has passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in April 2025.

This milestone explains why Synthesia’s venture backers are literally doubling. The Series E that nearly doubled its valuation was led by existing investor GV (Google Ventures), with participation from several other previous backers — including Series B lead Kleiner Perkins, Series C lead Accel, Series D lead New Enterprise Associates (NEA), NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, NVentures, Air Street Capital and PSP.

In addition to ongoing support, this round will bring in both new and exiting investors. On the one hand, Matt Miller’s VC firm Evantic and the secret company VC Hedosophia join the capital board as new entrants. On the other hand, Synthesia will facilitate a secondary employee sale in partnership with Nasdaq, according to TechCrunch.

To be clear, Synthesia is not yet going public — Nasdaq is not acting as a public exchange in this capacity, but as a private market facilitator that will help team members convert their shares into cash. These sales of employee stock often take place outside of this framework, but usually at prices either below or above the company’s official valuation, and are sometimes frowned upon by other shareholders. With this process, all sales will be tied to the same $4 billion valuation as Synthesia’s Series E, while the company retains a controlling element.

“This sub is first and foremost about our employees,” Synthesia CFO Daniel Kim told TechCrunch. “It gives employees a meaningful opportunity to access liquidity and share in the value they’ve helped create while we continue to operate as a privately held company focused on long-term growth.”

For Synthesia, this long-term growth includes moving beyond expressive videos and embracing the AI ​​agent trend. According to a press release, the company is developing AI agents that will allow its customers’ employees to “interact with company knowledge in a more intuitive, human way by asking questions, exploring scenarios through role-playing, and receiving personalized explanations.”

The company said early pilots have received positive feedback from customers, who reported higher engagement and faster knowledge transfer compared to traditional formats. This positive response explains why Synthesia now plans to make dealers a “key strategic focus” for investment, alongside further product enhancements to its existing platform.

While it did not disclose revenue projections, the company hopes its platform will provide a welcome response to businesses’ struggles to keep their workforces adequately trained despite rapid change. “We’re seeing a rare convergence of two big changes: a technology shift with AI agents becoming more capable and a market shift where upskilling and internal knowledge sharing have become board-level priorities,” said Synthesia co-founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli.

Seeing boards care more about employees as a result of AI wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card, except maybe Riparbelli. Together with his co-founder, Synthesia COO Steffen Tjerrild, Riparbelli took the initiative to hold a secondary sale so that employees could share in the success of the unicorn company. Founded in 2017, Synthesia now has more than 500 team members, a 20,000 sq ft headquarters in Londonand additional offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, New York and Zurich.

While unusual for a UK startup, this coordinated secondary sale isn’t the first and likely won’t be the last, Synthesia’s head of corporate affairs and policy Alexandru Voica told TechCrunch. “My guess is that [U.K.-based] Private companies stay private longer, this type of structured, cross-border employee liquidity may become more and more common, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see others do it, whether with Nasdaq or others,” he predicted.