AI video startup Captions rebrands to Mirage, secures $75M

Mirage, the startup formerly known as Captions, has raised $75 million in growth financing. The funding comes from the Customer Value Fund, an investment fund managed by venture capital firm General Catalyst. Alongside the funding, the startup has rebranded from Captions to Mirage, a move intended to position the company as an artificial intelligence lab that produces various models rather than a single-purpose application.

The company is shifting its product strategy to better serve small businesses. In January 2025, Mirage switched to a freemium model, and it now aims to merge its web and mobile platforms. Gaurav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Mirage, stated that the company aims to create more models focused on what it calls “assembly intelligence”—the company’s term for composing videos using different sources and components. This includes a new audio model designed to preserve user accents in generated videos. Misra explained the decision: “The reason for the audio model was that we noticed that there was a gap in accents because a lot of our users are international. Accents are just very important. There was my own dad’s example. He was trying to use the app, and he would say a word in an Indian accent, and it would always make it sound like he’s talking in an American accent.”

The startup’s growth metrics reflect an international user base, with only 25% of its revenue coming from the U.S. According to data from analytics firm Appfigures, Mirage’s performance over the last 365 days and cumulative history includes:

• Over 3.2 million downloads in the last 365 days.
• $28.4 million in in-app revenue in the last 365 days.
• More than 200 million videos created on the platform to date.

Mirage aims to use the fresh capital to fuel growth and expand in high-growth Asian markets. Pranav Singhvi, managing director of General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, expressed confidence in the startup’s unit economics and market potential. Singhvi noted that Mirage has clearly mapped out its business model, demonstrating an ability to spend capital efficiently to generate attractive returns on investment. He pointed to what he described as an infinite total addressable market, suggesting the company can leverage its initial traction among creators and influencers to eventually sell its services to enterprises. According to Singhvi, Mirage remains ahead of competing tools in terms of unit economics, which he attributed to the quality of its product.

Why it matters

Mirage is pivoting from a single-purpose app to an AI lab, using this capital to scale its “assembly intelligence” models and capture market share in high-growth Asian markets.