Mirage Raises $75M to Transform Video Editing with Captions

Mirage Raises $75 Million for Captions

Mirage, the company behind the video editing app Captions, has recently succeeded in raising significant funding of $75 million. This funding comes from the Customer Value Fund (CVF) of General Catalyst, a major player in the venture capital space. This amount will allow Mirage to continue developing its innovative models for Captions, an app that has already captivated a wide audience.

A Strategic Transformation

Over the past year, Mirage has undergone a significant transformation, both in terms of its product and its brand image. Initially known as Captions, the company opted for the name Mirage to better reflect its ambition to become a laboratory for artificial intelligence. This name change is accompanied by a diversification of its activities into sectors such as advertising and marketing. One notable development is the creation of a model specifically designed to enhance pacing, framing, and attention dynamics in short videos.

A Freemium Model to Compete

In January 2025, Mirage introduced a freemium model for Captions. This strategy aims to compete with well-established apps such as CapCut from ByteDance and Edits from Meta, which launched later that same year. Mirage's video creation suite incorporates some features from Captions and allows businesses to produce and distribute videos at scale, meeting the growing demands of the market.

The Future of AI Models

Gaurav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Mirage, expressed the company's intention to further develop AI models. While he did not disclose specific details about these future models, he mentioned that they would focus on assembly intelligence. This approach aims to facilitate video creation from various sources and components, thereby optimizing the editing process.

Preserving Accents in Videos

One of Mirage's recent audio models stands out for its ability to preserve accents in generated videos. Misra emphasized the importance of this feature, particularly for international users. He shared a personal anecdote illustrating the issue: his father, while using the app, found his Indian accent transformed into an American accent. This audio model aims to correct such distortions, making the user experience more authentic.

Impressive Growth

According to AppFigures, Captions has been downloaded over 3.2 million times in the past 12 months, generating $28.4 million in in-app revenue. The platform has been used to create over 200 million videos, with an international audience. Notably, only 25% of the revenue comes from the United States, highlighting the global appeal of the app.

A Platform Merger Strategy

Currently, Mirage's marketing suite is accessible via the web, while Captions primarily focuses on mobile. The company plans to merge these two platforms to better serve small businesses eager to produce effective marketing videos.

A Successful Product-Market Fit

Pranav Singhvi, general manager of the CVF at General Catalyst, praised Mirage's product-market fit. He highlighted the clarity of the company's business equation, which knows how to optimize every dollar invested to achieve an attractive return on investment. Singhvi also mentioned Mirage's potential to expand into diverse markets, ranging from content creators to enterprises.

A Growing Market

Many companies are investing in AI video generation solutions for marketing. Canva, for example, has launched several tools for marketing creation and tracking, while platforms like D-ID, HeyGen, Webflow, and Avataar are developing new features. Despite this competition, Singhvi remains confident in Mirage's position, emphasizing its superiority in terms of unit economics.

Expansion into Asia

With this new capital influx, Mirage plans to strengthen its growth and expand into Asian markets, which present strong development potential. This expansion strategy aims to solidify Mirage's position as a leader in AI-powered video creation tools.