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Mirage raises $75M to continue building models for its AI video editing app Captions | TechCrunch

2026-03-24 · 00:00 UTC ·Ivan Mehta ·2 min read

Brief

Mirage is positioning itself less as a single consumer app and more as an AI video-model company with both creator and enterprise ambitions. The startup, known for the Captions app, has paired a January 2025 freemium shift with a broader product expansion into web-based marketing tools that let companies generate and distribute videos at scale. Technically, its differentiation claim rests on domain-specific models: one tuned for short-video pacing, framing, and attention retention, and another audio model intended to preserve non-U.S. accents rather than flatten them into Americanized speech. CEO Gaurav Misra also hinted at future work on “assembly intelligence,” meaning models that can assemble finished videos from disparate assets and components. The business metrics in the article suggest meaningful traction rather than pure hype: 3.2 million downloads, $28.4 million in in-app revenue over the last year, and more than 200 million videos created. General Catalyst’s CVF framed the investment as a bet on product-market fit and attractive unit economics in a crowded AI marketing-video market.

Why it matters

Mirage, formerly branded as Captions, raised $75 million in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund on 2026-03-24 to keep building proprietary AI models for video creation and editing.

Key details

  • The company rebranded itself as an AI lab over the past year, trained a model for short-video pacing, framing, and attention dynamics, and is developing additional models focused on “assembly intelligence” for composing videos from multiple source elements.
  • Mirage switched to a freemium model in January 2025 to compete with ByteDance’s CapCut and Meta’s Edits, and now sells both a mobile-first editing app and a web-based marketing suite for bulk video creation and distribution.
  • AppFigures data cited in the article says Captions recorded more than 3.2 million downloads and $28.4 million in in-app revenue over the last 365 days; CEO Gaurav Misra said the platform has been used to create over 200 million videos, with only 25% of revenue coming from the U.S.
  • Mirage says its newer audio model is designed to preserve speakers’ accents in generated videos, addressing a problem where international users’ speech was being normalized toward American accents; the company plans to use the new capital to expand in high-growth Asian markets.
Cleaned source text

title: Mirage raises $75M to continue building models for its AI video editing app Captions | TechCrunch

author: Ivan Mehta

content_type: article

publication: TechCrunch

published: 2026-03-24T00:00:00

source_url: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/24/mirage-raises-75m-to-continue-building-models-for-its-ai-video-editing-app-captions/

word_count: 553

Mirage, the maker of video editing app Captions, has raised $75 million in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF).

Over the past year, the startup has made significant changes both to its product and corporate identity. The startup rebranded from Captions to Mirage to position itself as an AI lab that produces different models and also caters to industries like advertising and marketing. It has also trained a model specifically for pacing, framing and attention dynamics in short videos.

The company also switched to a freemium model in January 2025 to better compete with apps like ByteDance’s CapCut and Meta’s Edits, which was released later in the year. It now offers a video creation suite as well, with some of the features from Captions, that lets companies create and distribute videos in bulk.

Mirage’s co-founder and CEO Gaurav Misra said that the company aims to create more models. However, he didn’t specify what its next set of models would do, only saying that they would be focused on “assembly intelligence” — basically putting together a video using different sources and components.

Speaking about Mirage’s new audio model, which it claims can preserve accents in generated videos, Misra said, “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.”

According to data from analytics firm AppFigures, Captions have been downloaded over 3.2 million times in the last 365 days and has brought in $28.4 million in in-app revenue. Misra said the platform has been used to create more than 200 million videos so far, and that it has attracted an international user base, with only 25% of its revenue coming from the U.S.

Currently, Mirage’s marketing suite is available on the web, and Captions largely offers a mobile-first editing suite. The company aims to merge these two platforms to better target small businesses that may be looking to create marketing videos.

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Pranav Singhvi, managing director of General Catalyst’s CVF fund, said Mirage has great product-market fit.,

“Mirage’s business equation is extremely figured out. They know exactly how to spend that dollar and generate a very attractive ROI. If you think about the market they’re going after, it’s in a sense an infinite total addressable market. You can start out in the creator world, the influencer world, and then use that as a mechanism to sell to enterprises as well,” Singhvi told TechCrunch.

However, Singhvi seems confident about Mirage’s positioning and unit economics. “Regardless of what the other tools are out there, Mirage is clearly ahead of the pack from a unit economics standpoint. Ultimately, it’s all a reflection of their product,” he said.

Mirage aims to use the fresh capital to fuel growth, and expand in high-growth Asian markets.