Generative video creation and editing platform Captions has raised $60 million in Series C funding. Founded in 2021 by former Microsoft engineer Gaurav Misra and Goldman Sachs alum Dwight Churchill, the company’s technologies — Lipdub, AI Edit and the 3D avatar app AI Creator — have amassed more than 10 million downloads for mobile, the firm says. The C round brings its total raise to $100 million for a stated market valuation of $500 million. With the new funding, Captions plans to expand its presence in New York City, which is “emerging as the epicenter for AI research,” according to Misra.

Captions will expand its machine learning team in New York “and launch new generative innovations to position itself as the leader in the AI video space,” reports VentureBeat, which says the company “has evolved into a holistic AI-powered suite that provides everything a brand or individual needs to generate high-quality videos.”

Bloomberg notes Captions’ specialty “is videos that feature a person speaking,” which can be facilitated by inputting specific text or topic-based prompts, like “instructions for making a balloon dog.”

The results can then be synced, using Lipdub, to a photorealistic 3D avatar that becomes the creator’s proxy for onscreen duties, preventing the need for camera-readiness and “talking manually to the audience in every video,” per VB.

AI Creator has already been used in content “ranging from organic social posts to ads for small and established businesses,” Captions explains in a news release. Bloomberg reports current customers range from “realtors to salespeople to educators using it in the classroom,” quoting Misra saying it’s especially popular for short-form use.

AI Edit “provides users with the ability to tweak their content — complete with custom graphics, B-roll, transitions and zooms — just with a single tap,” VB details, adding that Captions’ AI suite also includes tools “for correcting eye contact, dubbing a speaker’s words into another language, executing human-like voiceovers and producing short clips from a longer piece of video.”

“These innovative features (have) catalyzed a new age for creativity, empowering an entirely new group of creators who otherwise may have been blocked by the barriers that come with recording or editing,” Misra says in blog post that includes a recruitment call.