Artificial intelligence (AI) video startup HeyGen has raised $60 million from American investors following the dissolution of its mainland Chinese operations and relocating to Los Angeles amid geopolitical tensions.
The company’s Series A round was led by early-stage venture capital firm Benchmark. New and returning investors included Thrive Capital, BOND, Conviction, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Aviv Nevo, Neil Mehta, and SV Angel, among others.
The AI startup’s valuation stood at $500 million following its latest funding round, according to a Bloomberg report.
HeyGen, which has rebranded itself twice in the past, firstly as Surreal and then as Movio, has been backed by the likes of Baidu Ventures, HongShan, IDG Capital, and ZhenFund when it was operating in the mainland.
The company’s co-founder, Joshua Xu, said China-based investors have very little stake in the company today, per the Bloomberg report. He also said HongShan gave up a board seat in November when HeyGen received funding led by London-based VC firm Conviction.
Xu is a former Snapchat software engineer, while co-founder Wayne Liang is a former ByteDance product design lead. Both co-founders are graduates from Carnegie Mellon University.
The four-year-old company gained popularity in China when its platform generated a video of Taylor Swift speaking Mandarin which went viral on the country’s social media platform Weibo.