Podcasts with AI-generated talking babies are a surprising new viral trend that people are contributing to with AI video generating tools. And Hedra is one of the businesses assisting artists with this.
Launched in 2023, the firm provides a web-based video production and editing suite based on its Character-3 model, which enables users to transfer styles between images and sounds and create videos with an AI-generated character as the main emphasis.
Podcast videos like this one, in which an AI-generated dog discusses what it is like to have a new infant in the family, are being made with technology.
We do not know how much Hedra has profited from this trend, but it is getting a lot of interest from investors. On Thursday, the firm announced that it had raised $32 million in a Series A fundraising round led by the Infrastructure fund of Andreessen Horowitz. Matt Bornstein of a16z will join the startup’s board, and its prior investors are taking part in the round.
The company’s founder and CEO, Michael Lingelbach (shown below), told TechCrunch that the idea behind the startup came from the difference he saw between startups like Runway, which offer tools for making short videos, and companies like Synthesia, which allow users to overlay AI-generated avatars over presentations.
“I wondered what we could do at the nexus of 3D characters and video creation, with longer dialogues and improved controllability,” he remarked.
After launching its first video model in June 2024, Hedra immediately caught the attention of investors, obtaining $10 million in seed funding from a16z Speedrun, Index Ventures, and Abstract Ventures. Amazon also supported the business earlier this year through Alexa Fund, its venture financing division.
The Character-3 model’s March introduction, which came shortly after the business signed its term sheet with a16z, was a significant turning point, according to Lingelbach, and it is currently propelling significant user growth.
The company plans to use the new funding to train its next model, which it claims allows for greater personalization, and to create technologies that would allow its AI-generated avatars to communicate with consumers.
The business is currently concentrating on drawing in artists and prosumers, and it claims that marketing departments from businesses have also expressed interest in it.
The program allows you to use additional models, such as Veo 2 and Kling for video creation, Flux, Imagen3, Sana, and Ideogram V2 for picture generation, and audio models from ElevenLabs and Cartesia for voice generation or cloning, even though Hedra’s own model is focused on character movement and emotion.
Hedra’s rivals include HeyGen, Synthesia, Greycroft-backed Cheehoo, which collaborates with Hollywood studios to produce animated films, and Captions (also supported by a16z), which is primarily geared toward smartphones. Hedra asserts that compared to videos created with its competitors, those produced with its platform have more emotive characters.
Bornstein of a16z believes that as the field of AI-powered video creation develops, additional tools that concentrate on characters, motion, voice, editing, and similar topics will become available.
“AI companies are able to create stunning videos of simple activities and situations.” However, they are unable to produce significant animation or conversation. Making a compelling tale is more important than simply creating a video. This is mostly due to the story’s characters and people. In an emailed statement, he told TechCrunch, “That is precisely what Hedra is building.”
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