Apr 25, 2019 - Technology

Startup behind David Beckham deepfake video raises $3.1 million

Dan Primack

An illustration of a mouth pixelated — Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Synthesia, a London-based developer of video synthesis technology, raised $3.1 million co-led by LDV Capital and Mark Cuban.

Why it matters: This is the company whose tech is behind a viral video in which soccer star David Beckham speaks nine different languages. As you might have guessed, David Beckham doesn't know how to speak nine different languages, and the video is for malaria awareness, not some sort of Rosetta Stone-like product. It's both mesmerizing and terrifying.

Axios' Kaveh Waddell has been covering the deep fakes phenomenon. Two important pieces are: The impending war over deep fakes and Defending against audio deep fakes before it's too late.

The bottom line: Synthesia's goal is to reduce the time and cost of video production, and tells TechCrunch that it is "actively working with governments and media organizations to create public awareness and develop security mechanisms to ... reduce potential negative effects from synthetic media technologies."

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Startup behind David Beckham deepfake video raises $3.1 million

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