Mirage secures $75M for AI video editing app Captions
▼ Summary
– Mirage, formerly Captions, raised $75 million in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund.
– The company rebranded to an AI lab, trained a model for short-video dynamics, and switched to a freemium model to compete.
– It developed an audio model to preserve user accents and offers a bulk video creation suite for businesses.
– The app has over 3.2 million downloads, $28.4 million in revenue, and 75% of its revenue comes from outside the U.S.
– The new capital will be used for growth and expansion into high-growth Asian markets.
The company behind the popular video editing tool Captions has secured a substantial $75 million in growth financing. This investment, led by General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, will propel Mirage’s expansion as it evolves from a single app into a broader AI lab developing specialized models for the advertising and marketing sectors. A key innovation is a proprietary model trained to optimize the pacing, framing, and attention dynamics specific to short-form video content.
Significant strategic shifts have marked the past year for the startup, beginning with its rebranding from Captions to Mirage. This move reflects a strategic pivot toward building diverse AI models while continuing to serve its core user base. To compete more effectively with rivals like CapCut and Meta’s Edits, the company adopted a freemium business model in early 2025. It has since launched a comprehensive video creation suite, enabling businesses to produce and distribute promotional videos at scale.
Mirage’s co-founder and CEO, Gaurav Misra, outlined a roadmap focused on developing new models centered on assembly intelligence. This concept involves intelligently stitching together video clips, audio, and other components from various sources to create cohesive final products. The company has already deployed an audio model designed to preserve regional accents, addressing a gap noted by its global audience. Misra shared a personal anecdote, explaining how the app initially misinterpreted his father’s Indian accent as American, highlighting the importance of this linguistic nuance.
The platform’s traction is evident in its performance metrics. Analytics indicate the Captions app has been downloaded more than 3.2 million times in the past year, generating over $28 million in revenue. Users have created more than 200 million videos on the platform, with a notably international footprint; only a quarter of its revenue originates from the United States.
Looking ahead, Mirage plans to merge its web-based marketing suite with its mobile-first Captions editor. This integration is strategically aimed at serving small businesses seeking efficient tools for marketing video production. The new funding will accelerate growth initiatives, with a particular focus on expanding into high-potential markets across Asia.
Pranav Singhvi, Managing Director at General Catalyst’s CVF, emphasized Mirage’s strong market position. He praised the company’s exceptional product-market fit and disciplined approach to unit economics. “Mirage’s business equation is extremely figured out. They know exactly how to spend that dollar and generate a very attractive ROI,” Singhvi stated. He views the total addressable market as virtually limitless, spanning from individual creators to large enterprises.
The competitive landscape for AI video-generation tools is crowded, with major players like Canva and others continually releasing new features. Despite this, Singhvi expressed confidence in Mirage’s distinct advantages, asserting the company is “clearly ahead of the pack from a unit economics standpoint,” a direct result of its product strength and strategic execution.
(Source: TechCrunch)
