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Leading AI video platform expands from creator economy to enterprise with Character-3 foundation model that brings storytelling to life through digital characters of any style
San Francisco, California – May 15, 2025; In the fight for audience attention, video wins – but producing it remains out of reach for most companies. Hedra, the AI video generation platform behind over 10 million lifelike videos, has raised $32 million to bring AI-powered video creation to enterprise marketers.
The series A funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Infrastructure fund (a16z Infra), with participation from existing investors, including a16z speedrun, Abstract, and Index Ventures. This round brings the company’s total funding to $44 million since its last announced fundraise in 2024.
Video production is mired in lengthy timelines and production costs that can spike up to thousands of dollars per minute. While over 2.5 million users have already generated millions of videos with Hedra, the company is now bringing this creative superpower to enterprise marketers (and beyond) who need to produce character-driven video content at scale. Whether it’s a seasonal campaign or a response to a real-time cultural moment, Hedra allows teams to create high-quality content fast featuring lifelike digital characters – so they can meet their audience where they are, when it matters most.
Hedra’s origin is deeply personal for founder and CEO Michael Lingelbach. Before pursuing a PhD at Stanford, he spent years on stage as a theatre actor. That experience shaped his belief that characters are the heart of every story, and that believable digital characters would unlock the next era of storytelling. “We’re building the next generation of storytelling technology to empower content creators and enterprise marketers to tell narratives at scale on their own. Getting over the uncanny valley of compelling performance is the hardest frontier in video, and with our Character-3 foundation model, we’re devoted to crossing it,” said Michael Lingelbach, Founder and CEO of Hedra.
At the heart of Hedra’s magic is Character-3, the first omnimodal foundation model that seamlessly blends text, image, and audio to create character performance videos. Whether you need a professional spokesperson explaining your product, an animated brand mascot, or even an animal-style character, the model works across any style and framing — from cinematic full-body shots to intimate close-ups. This breakthrough technology powers Hedra Studio, where users can transform simple ideas into compelling visual stories with just a few clicks.
Since launching in 2024, Hedra has seen explosive growth, attracting a wide range of users, from social media creators to enterprise teams looking to streamline video production – including Jon LaJoie and Reid Hoffman. As marketing teams face pressure to do more with less, and as consumers grow increasingly discerning in a tighter economic climate, the ability to produce content quickly — and with emotional impact — has become a competitive necessity. With Hedra, brands can speak to the moment, respond to cultural conversations in real time, and cut through the noise with high-quality videos that resonate.
“This kind of creative agility is no longer just a nice-to-have — it’s essential for capturing attention in an increasingly crowded digital landscape,” added Michael Lingelbach. Unlike competitors focused solely on avatars or narrow use cases, Hedra delivers a unified solution that integrates story, sound, and video generation into one seamless workflow. Teams can create customizable digital characters with unique appearances, voices, and personalities and place them into dynamic scenes — empowering them to scale content production without sacrificing quality or originality.
“Hedra is building foundational technology for the next generation of media,” said Matt Bornstein, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who has joined the Hedra board. “Character-3 is a breakthrough model that integrates text, video, and audio to create highly controllable, expressive characters. If you want to create AI-driven actors, it’s the best model in the market by far. And that capability unlocks use cases across the creator economy, enterprise marketing, entertainment, and more. We’re absolutely thrilled to back Michael and the Hedra team as they build the foundation model for generative characters.”
As AI-powered storytelling continues to evolve, Hedra is investing heavily in pushing the next frontier of quality and controllable model quality — ensuring that its technology not only performs at the cutting edge, but solves real-world creative challenges. The team has grown to 20 employees, with plans to triple headcount by year’s end.
Looking ahead, Hedra is poised to become the creative canvas for the next generation of media creators – from individuals to global brands. By combining cutting-edge AI models with intuitive creation tools, the company is democratizing video production and enabling a future where compelling visual narratives are limited only by imagination, not by budget or technical expertise. As the line between human and AI-generated content continues to blur, Hedra is ensuring that the art of storytelling remains vibrant, accessible, and deeply human at its core.
About Hedra
Hedra is at the forefront of combining artificial intelligence with creative video production making digital creation as accessible and engaging as it should be. Their platform is designed to democratize video creation, making it easier and faster for users to produce high-quality content with complex narratives and personalized characters. Hedra’s developments are set to transform how brands and individual creators engage with audiences, providing new avenues for storytelling in the digital age. More for information please visit https://www.hedra.com/ or follow via LinkedIn, X or TikTok.
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Image source: Hedra.com
