The company, founded in 2020, has been used by nonprofits and corporate customers to create internal training videos, ad campaigns, and visual chatbots. Despite concerns about the potential for creating convincing deepfakes, there is significant demand from businesses for this technology. HeyGen's co-founder and CEO, Joshua Xu, believes that by removing the need for a camera, they can eliminate barriers to visual storytelling.
Key takeaways:
- HeyGen, an AI startup that allows users to create realistic avatars, has raised $60 million in a funding round, valuing the company at $500 million.
- The funding round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Conviction, Thrive Capital and Bond Capital. Benchmark partner Victor Lazarte will join HeyGen’s board as part of the deal.
- HeyGen's technology allows users to create photorealistic avatars that can speak in their own voice and translate their words into multiple languages, which has been used by businesses for internal training videos, ad campaigns and visual chatbots.
- Despite concerns about the potential for creating convincing deepfakes, there is significant demand from businesses to experiment with this technology, as demonstrated by McDonald's use of HeyGen for a promotional campaign.