EQT Ventures is a European VC fund with just over €2.3 billion in total capital raised. EQT Ventures I launched in May 2016, with commitments totaling €566 million and a simple mission - to be the kind of VC the team would have liked to have had on their own startup journeys. Recognizing that building and growing a company takes more than just capital, the EQT Ventures team provides founders with support and advice throughout different stages of growth. EQT Ventures doesn't focus on particular markets or industries, but on bold and ambitious founders who have the grit and determination to build global success stories. EQT Ventures II launched in November 2019, with commitments totaling €660 million. EQT Ventures III launched in 2022, with commitments totaling €1.1 billion, making it the biggest European Venture Capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The EQT Ventures team is based across six offices in London, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Paris, and San Francisco, taking a locals-with-locals approach and supporting founders on the ground. Motherbrain, EQT Ventures'  in-house-developed artificial intelligence (AI) platform, ensures the team has a data-driven approach and has driven more than $100 million in portfolio company investments.

EQT Ventures

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that provides funding and mentorship to early-stage companies. It offers a program where startups receive guidance from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The organization helps founders in their business models and develop their products. Y Combinator serves industries such as technology, healthcare, and finance.

Y Combinator

Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy and includes publicly listed UiPath, Wise, and unicorns Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, and wefox along with fast-growing businesses such as Grover, viz.ai and Ezra.  Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent. Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support, and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent.

Seedcamp

Axeleo Capital (AXC) is an Emerging independent early-stage VC, trusted and backed by seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts across Europe, focusing on B2B software and Greentech startups Axeleo Capital provides a unique framework for European early-stage startups with equity investments from seed to Series B stages, operational guidance, and strategic assistance. Focusing on B2B software and Greentech startups, we are the first institutional investor for tech founders, and we believe in supporting them every step of the way. Due to our DNA and our entrepreneurial story, our tailored approach includes support for team management, business strategies, partnerships, and ESG activities. We boast an active ecosystem of more than  150  high-level  entrepreneurs, sector experts and mentors who have been instrumental in numerous success stories across Europe and the US. Committed to sustainability, we integrate ESG activities into our tailored approach, ensuring our portfolio companies thrive responsibly.

Axeleo Capital

Argil

Argil is an AI tool for day to day work through training the AI on images and creating custom workflows, all in no code.

Based in Paris, Argil offers a GenAI-based video creation platform. The platform enables users to create realistic AI avatars by converting video, text, and audio content into multilingual videos within minutes. Users can either create custom avatars by uploading a two-minute video of themselves speaking or choose from a library of virtual avatars. The platform's AI technology incorporates natural body language and expressions to create more engaging content. Argil's features include AI-assisted pre-editing tools, captioning, B-roll integration, and the ability to control avatar body language and camera angles. The company operates on a subscription model with pricing starting at USD 1 per minute of video, offering both free and paid plans that provide access to features such as custom avatars, additional video minutes, and enhanced editing capabilities.

Argil Raises $5.2 Million for AI-Powered Video-Generation Tool

Argil secures €4.9M funding from EQT Ventures, others

SPEEDA Edge

Generate videos with your AI clone

Argil (YC S24)

Argil raises €4.9M to transform Video Creation with AI

Exploring the limitless possibilities of AI

Generative AI Applications

Argil Secures €4.9 Million in Funding

Argil operates a platform that converts video, text, and audio content into AI-generated human-like and multilingual avatar videos. The platform enables users to create realistic AI-generated videos featuring customized avatars in just a few minutes. Users can create their own AI clone by uploading a two-minute video of themselves speaking along with a consent video, after which they can record their voice or input text to generate new videos. The platform includes AI-enabled pre-editing features that help users select camera angles and control body language to maintain realism, while also offering capabilities for adding B-roll, captions, and AI-generated images.
Argil's service is available through a subscription model starting at USD 1 per minute of video, with different plans offering varying features such as custom avatars, additional video minutes per month, and enhanced editing capabilities. The platform differentiates itself from competitors by producing more realistic avatars that avoid the robotic, detectably fake appearance common in the market. The company has gained significant user adoption, with its technology being utilized by major content creators and the estates of celebrities, including Audrey Hepburn's estate, to create content for new generations of fans.
Key customers and partnerships
Argil's client base includes prominent YouTubers, with notable users such as Kwebblekop, who has over 15 million subscribers and uses the platform to grow his YouTube channel. The platform serves various industries including brands, creators, and educators who need to produce multiple videos to maintain audience engagement. The platform has also established a relationship with the Audrey Hepburn estate, which uses Argil's technology to create new content featuring the late actress.

DeckRobot is a platform compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint that leverages AI to transform raw slides into enterprise-ready presentations. DeckRobot AI transforms draft slides into professional, on-brand slides by adapting graphics from a vast library of slide examples. Users can apply an unlimited number of styles to any slide deck, including old documents, client materials, or web-sourced slides.DeckRobot offers enhancements for individual slides, such as adding approved icons and images, object alignment, slide resizing, and text validation through AI checks. DeckRobot's plugin acts as a time-saving tool for PowerPoint users, reducing manual work and potentially saving up to 80% of working time. The plugin emphasizes creating visually appealing presentations that adhere to company brand guidelines while maintaining content quality.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company reportedly worked with 70% of the largest consulting and audit companies.

DeckRobot

Based in Italy, Contents.com is a generative AI-powered multimedia creation tool directed at marketing teams, bloggers, publishers, web agencies, ecommerce sites, and large corporations looking to scale content output. The company operates as a SaaS platform that provides tools to support the entire content creation workflow, combining AI-generated output with manual finishing. Contents.com’s features include:1) Industry trends: Uses AI to provide an overview of popular content trends during a specified time period2) AI Chat: A natural language chatbot that can answer questions on any topic or be used to generate content ideas3) AI Writer: Generates content based on a selected template, including blog posts, social media posts, product descriptions, marketing emails, search engine optimized content, and summarized and rephrased content4) AI Art: Generates images based on text inputs, a selected style, and destination content type5) Text to Audio: Converts text documents into audio, with several AI voices available for selection and generates text transcripts from audio input6) AI Translation: Translates content into 25+ languages (January 2024) and offers human translation7) Professional writing services: Completion and review of AI-generated content or fully outsourced content creation by human writersContents.com also offers a customizable enterprise solution, enabling large organizations to automate their content creation processes.The firm claims that its solution can generate content 10x faster.In April 2023, Contents.com acquired Scribeur, its main French competitor, expanding its customer base to include major French and European brands. In the same month, the firm also acquired translation company Traduzione.it. In addition, in May 2023, the company acquired Scribox, an Italian content marketing marketplace, to leverage Scribox's expertise in custom content creation, SEO, and social media marketing.Key customers and partnershipsAs of May 2023, Contents.com’s users included Allianz, Billboard, IKEA, Oppo, and Accenture.

Contents.com

Estonia-based Alpha3D utilizes GenAI technologies to allow users to automatically convert text prompts or 2D images of real-world objects into interactive 3D digital assets. The platform aims at simplifying the 3D model creation process, making it more accessible and scalable for users regardless of their 3D-modeling knowledge. Alpha3D's technology has potential applications in various domains, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), virtual try-on (VTO), gaming, the metaverse, and even non-fungible tokens (NFTs), allowing a wide range of digital interactions and experiences​.The platform claims to automatically generate 3D content 10x faster and up to 100x cheaper than traditional methods, without requiring 3D modeling expertise.Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2023, Alpha3D had managed to garner a user base of nearly 100,000 platform users, including Viva Technology, Threedium, Wanna, PwC, and FARFETCH.In June 2023, the company partnered with Tryme, a company specializing in custom software solutions, to advance the creation of AI-generated 3D models for eyewear by combining Alpha3D's rapid 2D-to-3D conversion with TRYME's virtual try-on platform.

Alpha3D

OASIS is a human-centric AI research lab that offers photorealistic AI avatars for remote work. Users can enter text, record audio, or write directly on the screen, and the AI will rewrite based on specified preferences or settings, allowing users to generate rewritten content for various purposes, such as improving clarity, style, or readability. The cross-platform app allows users to use the AI avatar when using a camera, including Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, and WhatsApp.

OASIS

Canada-based Maket specializes in utilizing GenAI to automate the design of residential floor plans, aiding architects, designers, and developers in efficiently creating various design iterations​. Additionally, Maket offers a suite of tools, including a virtual assistant for informed desig-making, assistance with navigating zoning codes, and regulatory compliance checks. The platform is also integrated with Rhino, Autodesk Autocad, and Autodesk Revit.Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;In April 2022, Maket formed a strategic partnership with <a href="https://mila.quebec/en/mila-and-maket-announce-a-new-partnership-to-leverage-ai-for-generative-architecture/#:~:text=MONTREAL%20%E2%80%93%20April%2020%2C%202022,architecture%2C%20engineering%20and%20construction">Mila</a>, a deep-learning research institute, to advance AI-powered architectural planning​.Key competitors: None comparable (Maket is the only design startup we have identified that uses GenAI to automate the design of residential floor plans.)

Maket

Companies that offer solutions to generate text from a prompt, where output is independent of previous interactions, such as specialized content creation tools

Companies that offer solutions to create and edit images and GIFs, including techniques such as inpainting, outpainting, upscaling, and stylizing

Companies that generate or synthesize voice and audio, including voice cloning, text-to-speech, and language translation

Companies that specialize in generating 3D content, including the creation of game assets (virtual worlds, non-playable characters), product visualization, and other 3D models

Companies that offer solutions to create and edit video content, including scene generation, background replacement, stylizing, and frame interpolation

Companies that offer solutions to generate contextually relevant text responses across multiple conversational exchanges, such as natural language chatbots

Generative AI applications are built on foundation models that are trained using advanced ML models

The technology allows the creation of digital avatars and virtual games

All companies within the space offer a product or service based on generative AI

The technology allows the creation of personalized content

Some applications leverage NLP to train models to process and respond to language-based prompts

Generative AI applications are built on in-house or third-party foundation models

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 Argil, an AI video production platform, has raised EUR 4.9 million (USD 5.2 million) in pre-seed and seed funding. The funding round was led by EQT Ventures and included participants Seedcamp, Axeleo, YouTuber Kwebbelkop, and Charles Gorintin, co-founder of Alan and Mistral AI.
 The raised capital will be used to scale operations and make improvements to the platform. The aim is to enable creators to produce multilingual videos using realistic AI avatars that are ready for immediate posting.
 Argil, which is based in Paris, offers services starting at EUR 1 (USD 1.1) per video minute. The platform has seen growing interest among YouTubers and celebrity estates. An example of this is the estate of Audrey Hepburn, which has been using the platform to reach new audiences.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Argil's AI video creation platform enters a rapidly growing and competitive market with new entrants like Mago, which raised <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/36580"> USD 1.6 million </a> just yesterday, and more established players like Runway and Synthesia. Hence, the company's success will likely depend on its ability to deliver innovative solutions that help creators navigate the evolving landscape.

Argil

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