Hour One, the AI video generation company powered by virtual human characters, today announced that it has raised a $20 million Series A funding round to put more virtual humans in the virtual workplace. The round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners with participation from Galaxy Interactive, Remagine Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Semble Ventures, Cerca Partners, Digital-Horizon and Eynat Guez.
The funding round will be used to further enhance and streamline the process of becoming a virtual human on the platform, making it possible from any mobile device, with studio quality video creation and full automation. This can all be done using Hour One’s recently launched Reals, a first-of-its-kind self-service platform, enabling businesses to create human-led video automatically, from just text, in a matter of minutes.
Hour One’s AI platform converts people into virtual human characters that can be activated with lifelike expressiveness, in any language, for a range of commercial and professional use cases.
Hour One’s AI platform converts people into virtual human characters that can be activated with lifelike expressiveness, in any language, for a range of commercial and professional use cases. Following a short filming session in which a person’s likeness is captured, Hour One’s advanced AI technology generates a virtual twin that can then be deployed in a variety of roles, including a virtual receptionist, salesperson, HR representative or language teacher. The humans behind the virtual characters can earn a passive income for appearances across a range of professional and commercial content, pointing to an expansive vision of the future of work.
As companies face the reality of permanent hybrid and remote workforces, video and more immersive media have become necessary tools to preserve the human experience in virtual work environments.
“The ability to easily turn any person into a virtual character that can then be activated using just text, will completely transform the way businesses and their customers engage each other,” said Hour One CEO and Founder Oren Aharon. “Very soon, any person will be able to have a virtual twin for professional use that can deliver content on their behalf, speak in any language, and scale their productivity in ways previously unimaginable. We’re incredibly excited that Insight Partners has come on board at this pivotal moment in our journey.”
“The power and accuracy of generative AI continues to improve at an extremely rapid pace, and Hour One is at the vanguard,” said Lonne Jaffe, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “You just type in some text, and behind the scenes the incredibly scalable Hour One infrastructure creates a fluid and realistic video of an avatar talking along with matching voice and graphics. The team’s grand vision is to be able to embed this extraordinary capability within any software product or allow it to be invoked in real-time via API. We look forward to partnering with Oren and the team at Hour One as they ScaleUp and capture this fast-growing market opportunity.” Lonne will join the Hour One board.
Companies such as Berlitz, the world’s premier provider of language and culture training, use Hour One to generate studio-grade video, featuring lifelike virtual instructors across thousands of videos. Hour One has also partnered with NBCUniversal, DreamWorks and Cameo to bring personalization at scale to its core intellectual property.
Hour One is hiring across all functions and tripling its headcount in both New York and Tel Aviv.
For more information, please visit hourone.ai.
Hour One is an AI company specializing in the development of virtual humans for use in professional video communications. Hour One’s lifelike virtual characters are based on real humans, and can be animated with human expressiveness just from text, enabling businesses to upgrade their communications with unprecedented ease and scale. With its self-service platform, Reals, businesses can access Hour One’s technology more easily than ever, to generate fully-produced videos automatically, in just minutes. Hour One’s customers include some of the biggest names in e-learning and media, including Berlitz and NBC Universal and DreamWorks, and spanning HR, e-commerce, SaaS and more. Hour One is headquartered in Tel Aviv and New York City.
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of February 24, 2022, the closing of the firm’s recent fundraise, Fund XII, brings Insight Partners regulatory assets under management to over $90B. Insight Partners has invested in more than 600 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Insight Partners meets great software leaders where they are in their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
