Captions is a New York-based AI video editing startup founded in 2021 by Gaurav Misra and Dwight Churchill. It offers a mobile and web app that uses artificial intelligence to help creators easily script, record, and edit short-form videos – particularly “talking” videos where someone speaks to the camera. The Captions app launched in 2021 with backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, initially allowing users to automatically transcribe speech and overlay captions on their videos. This addressed a key need on social media, as many viewers watch videos muted. Within six months, Captions grew to over 100,000 daily active users, with 1 million videos created per month.

Over time, Captions expanded into a full creative studio. It introduced AI-powered features like eye contact correction, automatic jump cuts, background music suggestion, and multi-language dubbing. In 2023, the company’s “Lipdub” feature enabled creators to translate and dub their speech into 28 languages, broadening content reach. By late 2023, Captions was sustaining ~100,000 daily users creating about a million videos monthly. The app also gained industry recognition, appearing in Fast Company’s “Next Big Things in Tech 2023” and winning Webby Awards in 2024.

In 2024, Captions evolved into generative AI. It launched AI Creator, which lets users produce videos with photorealistic 3D avatar presenters, and AI Edit, which auto-edits footage in one tap. These features let users create polished talking videos entirely through AI, lowering the barrier to content creation. Captions’ user base swelled to over 10 million creators globally by mid-2024, with diverse users (from online influencers to realtors and educators) leveraging the platform. On average, more than 3 million videos are now generated each month on Captions.

The company has raised a total of $100 million in funding. It secured a $4M seed round in early 2021, an $11M Series A in 2022 co-led by a16z and Sequoia, a $25M Series B in 2023 led by Kleiner Perkins, and a $60M Series C in July 2024 led by Index Ventures (valuing Captions at $500M). Prominent investors include Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Index, SV Angel, and angels like Instagram’s Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. With the Series C, Captions announced plans to invest $100M into AI research in NYC and grew its team from 15 to around 60 employees in 2024. In November 2024, Captions made its first acquisition, buying AlpacaML to enhance its generative AI capabilities.

Today, Captions positions itself as an AI-powered creative studio transforming how videos are made. Its suite of tools allows anyone – regardless of editing skills – to create subtitled, edited, and even AI-generated videos with ease. The company continues to develop cutting-edge generative video technology (such as large diffusion models for video) to further “democratize video creation” and maintain its lead in the AI content creation space.