AI Video Startup HeyGen Valued at $500 Million in Funding Round

HeyGen, an artificial intelligence startup that lets users quickly create realistic-looking avatars, has raised $60 million in a funding round that values the company at $500 million.

The financing, set to be announced on Thursday, was led by Benchmark with participation from investors such as Conviction, Thrive Capital and Bond Capital. As part of the deal, Benchmark partner Victor Lazarte is joining HeyGen’s board. The funding amount was previously reported by The Information. To date, the startup has raised a total of $74 million.

Founded in 2020, HeyGen is one of a growing number of startups aiming to make it cheaper and easier to create videos with generative AI. Using HeyGen, anyone can make a photorealistic avatar that can speak in their own voice and translate their words into a range of languages.

The rapid advancement in AI video generation tools has heightened fears about enabling a new crop of convincing deepfakes, as these services have become increasingly capable, cheap and generally accessible. But there is also significant demand from businesses to experiment with the technology. HeyGen has been used by nonprofits and corporate customers to create internal training videos, ad campaigns and visual chatbots that people can engage with in real time.

In June, McDonald’s Corp. turned to HeyGen to promote its Grandma McFlurry dessert. Customers were invited to record a video message to their grandmothers that could then be translated into her native language while retaining the grandchild’s own voice. During the process, the website also suggested users buy a McFlurry: “Grandma would want you to have one.”

“People love video, but people also hate being on camera or don’t have time to be on camera,” Joshua Xu, HeyGen’s co-founder and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg News. “I thought if we could remove the camera, we’ll remove the barrier for visual storytelling.”