Mirage raises $75M to continue building models for its AI video editing app Caption

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

Over the past year, the startup has made significant changes to both its product and corporate identity. The launcher has been rewritten from Caption to Mirage to position itself as an AI lab that produces different models and caters to industries like advertising and marketing. It also trained a model specifically for speed, framing and attention span 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, released later in the year. It now offers a video creation suite, with some features from captioning, that allows companies to create and distribute videos in bulk.

Mirage founder and CEO Gaurav Misra said the company intends to build more models. However, he did not specify what the next set of models will do, saying only that they will focus on “assembly intelligence” – basically combining video using different sources and components.

Speaking about Mirage’s new audio model, which he says can store voices in produced videos, Misra said, “The reason for the audio model is that we noticed that there is a gap in accents because many of our users are from other countries. Accents are very important. There was an example of my father. He was trying to use the app, and he would just say a word, like American American, and he used to say a word, like American American. accent.”

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

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

Pranav Singhvi, managing director of General Catalyst’s CVF fund, said Mirage has good market value.

“Mirage’s business analytics are very well thought out. They know exactly how to use that dollar and generate a very attractive ROI. If you think about the market they’re looking for, it’s in a sense an immeasurable market that can’t be fixed. You can start in the creator world, the dynamic world, and then use that as a way to sell to businesses as well,” Singhvi told TechCrunch.

There are tons of companies building AI video generation pipelines for marketing. Canva has launched several tools for creating and tracking leads, while platforms like D-ID, HeyGen, Webflow, and Avataar have been releasing new models and features.

However, Singhvi seems confident about the Mirage’s stance and the economy unit. “Regardless of what other devices say, the Mirage is clearly ahead from a unit economy standpoint. In the end, it’s all a reflection of their product,” he said.

Mirage intends to use the new capital to increase growth, and expand into emerging markets in Asia.