Mirage secures $75M funding to advance AI models for the Captions app

Mirage, the company behind the video-editing app Captions, has secured $75 million in growth funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), marking a significant step in its expansion as an AI-focused platform.

Over the past year, the startup has undergone notable changes in both its branding and product direction. It transitioned from the Captions brand to Mirage, reflecting its broader ambition to operate as an AI lab that develops multiple models and serves industries such as advertising and marketing. As part of this shift, the company has trained a specialised model designed to improve pacing, framing, and attention dynamics in short-form video content.

The company also adopted a freemium business model in January 2025, a move aimed at strengthening its position against competitors like ByteDance’s CapCut and Meta’s Edits, which launched later in the year. Alongside this, Mirage introduced a more comprehensive video creation suite that includes Captions and lets businesses produce and distribute video at scale.

Mirage co-founder and CEO Gaurav Misra said the company plans to develop additional AI models, though he did not provide specific details about upcoming releases. He described the future direction as focused on “assembly intelligence,” referring to the ability to construct videos from multiple inputs and components automatically.

Discussing the company’s audio model, which is designed to preserve accents in generated videos, Misra highlighted the importance of linguistic authenticity for a global user base. He noted that many existing tools tend to standardise accents, which can reduce personalisation. He shared a personal example, explaining how his father’s Indian accent was consistently altered into an American accent when using similar tools, prompting the need for a more inclusive solution.

According to analytics firm Appfigures, the Captions app has been downloaded more than 3.2 million times over the past year and has generated $28.4 million in in-app revenue. Misra added that users have created over 200 million videos on the platform to date, with only about 25% of revenue coming from the United States, reflecting strong international adoption.

Currently, Mirage’s marketing-focused tools are available via the web, while Captions continues to operate primarily as a mobile-first editing application. The company plans to integrate these platforms to serve better small businesses seeking efficient ways to produce marketing content.

Pranav Singhvi, managing director of General Catalyst’s CVF, said Mirage demonstrates strong product-market fit and a clear understanding of its growth strategy. He noted that the company has developed an effective model for acquiring users and generating returns, while targeting a market with virtually unlimited potential — from individual creators and influencers to enterprise clients.

The competitive landscape in AI-powered video creation remains crowded, with companies like Canva, D-ID, HeyGen, Webflow, and Avataar continuing to launch new tools and features aimed at marketing workflows. Despite this, Singhvi expressed confidence in Mirage’s positioning, particularly regarding its unit economics and overall product strength.

With the new funding, Mirage plans to accelerate its growth and expand further into high-growth markets across Asia, where demand for scalable video content solutions continues to rise.