UK AI unicorn Synthesia has announced a $200 million (approximately 1.394 billion RMB) funding round. After this round of funding, its post-money valuation soared to $4 billion, nearly doubling from a year ago, solidifying its position as one of Europe's most valuable AI companies.

This round of funding was led by GV (Google Ventures), the venture capital fund under Alphabet, Google's parent company. Existing investors NVIDIA and Accel also continued to invest further. The funds will be used to develop a new generation of interactive audio-visual "intelligent virtual assistants." Unlike previous digital humans that could only "read scripts," Synthesia's new product aims to enable real-time conversations around specific topics. The initial applications will focus on enterprise sales training, recruitment interviews, and skills development scenarios.

The CEO of Synthesia, Victor Riparbelli, stated that the company has strategically abandoned the competitive consumer advertising market (which once created a virtual image for Messi), and is now focusing on the more profitable and stable enterprise communication market. Currently, its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has exceeded $100 million, with clients including global giants such as Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, and UBS Group.

Although the technology is still being iterated—during recent demonstrations, the interactive virtual human occasionally still has a "digital synthesis" feel and a sense of violation caused by network latency—investors clearly believe in its ability to solve the pain points of enterprise employee training. By transforming the originally expensive process of producing real-person videos into simple text input, Synthesia is redefining the way enterprises approach digital transformation.