In 2017, Victor Riparbelli co-founded Synthesia, a London-based “AI video platform for business,” five years before ChatGPT’s public debut. When seeking funding, over 100 startup investors rejected his idea, often calling it “a crazy sci-fi idea.” Today, AI companies received 61% of global venture capital funding in 2025, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Businesses’ spending on generative AI tools increased to $37 billion in 2025, up from $11.5 billion in 2024, per a Menlo Ventures report. Synthesia, whose clients include PepsiCo, Mondelez and Heineken, was most recently valued at $4 billion, from a $200 million fundraising round announced in January. Riparbelli declined to share annual revenue. Synthesia’s survival depended on a cold email sent in 2017 by co-founder and COO Steffen Tjerrild to Mark Cuban, promising to “keep it short” and including a product demo. Cuban responded within five minutes, and after 14 hours of emails, he invested $1 million, valuing Synthesia at $5 million. Cuban believed “AI was the future and that video would be a core element” and asked if the team would be “willing to work their asses off.” After its initial business model flopped, Synthesia spent four months building a new product for a different customer type,