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Captions
Mirage was founded in New York City and rebranded from Captions in 2025 to reflect an expanded mission beyond its flagship editing app.
Captions
Mirage was founded in New York City and rebranded from Captions in 2025 to reflect an expanded mission beyond its flagship editing app. The firm now develops the Captions application, Mirage foundation models, and the Mirage API. Co-founders include the CEO and COO, supported by a roster of individual investors — among them Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, and Jared Leto — that signals deep ties to both the creator economy and the early Instagram product lineage. Mirage operates at the intersection of generative AI and video production. Its multimodal model spans natural language processing, voice synthesis, and photorealistic visual generation, producing A-roll footage matched to speech with natural lip movement and emotional expression. The Captions app layers editing capabilities on top: AI Edit automates scene cuts, B-roll, and music; a chat-based editor accepts text-prompted revisions; and custom avatars let users generate talking-head video from a single selfie. The firm serves markets from social content and video ads to training videos and podcast clips, with support for over 100 languages in captions and 30 languages in dubbing. Mirage operates from a single New York headquarters. Team size and total capital raised or deployed are not publicly disclosed. In 2025, the firm merged its Mirage Studio product into the Captions desktop experience, consolidating its user base under one platform. Individual backers such as former Instagram CTO Mike Krieger, Lightspeed partner Antoine Martin, and investor Lenny Rachitsky provide a capital base that blends venture sponsorship with high-profile operator credibility. Mirage’s architecture is distinct: it is an AI research company that ships both a developer API and a mass-market consumer app. That vertical integration — training proprietary foundation models for video generation while directly owning the editing interface for hundreds of thousands of users — lets it capture real-time feedback loops that pure research labs or standalone editing tools cannot replicate.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Mirage?
Mirage is a venture-backed operating company, not an investment firm, and does not have an allocator-style investment committee. Strategic decisions are led by the co-founder and CEO alongside the co-founder and COO, with backing from a group of individual investors including Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, and Jared Leto.
How is Mirage related to the original Captions app?
Mirage is the parent entity that rebranded from Captions in 2025. The Captions app remains the primary consumer-facing product, now one of three pillars alongside the Mirage foundation models and the Mirage API.
What is the source of Mirage's capital?
Mirage has raised capital from a group of prominent individual backers rather than institutional venture funds. Disclosed supporters include Lightspeed partner Antoine Martin, former Instagram CTO Mike Krieger, Kevin Systrom, and investor Lenny Rachitsky, alongside other advisors.
How does Mirage's AI model differ from a standard video editing tool?
Mirage builds its own multimodal foundation model that generates photorealistic A-roll — including natural lip movement, eye contact, and emotional expression — from voice and text prompts. This is integrated directly into the Captions editing suite, allowing for AI actors, automated scene assembly, and chat-based editing.
Does Mirage participate in fund commitments or only direct product development?
Mirage is solely an operating company developing AI video products. It does not make venture investments, fund commitments, or operate as a family office deploying capital into external managers or deals.
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