24 Generative AI Startups You Haven’t Heard of — But Should!

Generative AI startups are reshaping how we approach creativity, productivity, and automation.

These innovative companies are unlocking new possibilities across industries, from marketing and media to real estate and e-commerce.

In this blog, we’ll explore the most impactful startups leading the charge in AI-powered content generation, video creation, and more.

With each tool, they’re making sophisticated technology more accessible and helping professionals and creators amplify their work, push creative boundaries, and streamline complex workflows.

While the big names in generative AI often steal the spotlight, there’s an exciting wave of under-the-radar startups quietly crafting the future of artificial intelligence.

So, forget the buzzwords for a second and dive into the next generation of generative AI startups.

You might just discover the next big thing before everyone else does.

1. Runway – Video Editing and Generation

Location: New York, NY

Founded: 2018

Funding: $236.5M (Series C)

Runway uses text prompts to generate video content, aimed at simplifying video production. This tool is widely used for creative video creation, even without traditional filming.

2. Stability AI – Image Generation and Diffusion Models

Location: London, UK

Founded: 2020

Stability AI created Stable Diffusion, an open-source image-generative model, supporting numerous AI-powered visual tools in creative and commercial applications.

3. Synthesia – AI-Powered Video Creation

Location: London, UK

Founded: 2017

Funding: $156.6M (Series C)

Synthesia enables users to create videos using only text, without cameras, by translating text to video and localizing content in multiple languages.

4. Cohere – Language Generation

Location: Toronto, Canada

Founded: 2020

Cohere provides API services for text generation and comprehension, powering tasks like sentiment analysis and brand-voice matching in customer communications and analytics.

5. Character.AI – Conversational AI

Location: Menlo Park, CA

Founded: 2021

This platform enables users to create AI-driven “characters” for conversation, role-playing, and storytelling, blending creative writing with interactive, chatbot-style engagement.

6. Anyword – Content Generation for Marketing

Location: New York, NY

Founded: 2013

Anyword generates text optimized for marketing campaigns, enabling businesses to create consistent brand-aligned content across various channels.

7. Inworld AI – AI-Driven Game Characters

Location: Mountain View, CA

Founded: 2021

Funding: $125.7M

Inworld AI focuses on gaming, using AI to develop characters that can respond and act with human-like traits and responses in virtual settings.

8. Descript – Collaborative Video and Audio Editing

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2017

Descript offers editing tools for video and audio with transcription and editing options, useful in media and podcast production.

9. Soundraw – AI-Generated Music

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Founded: 2021

Soundraw is a tool for creators to produce royalty-free, AI-composed music tailored to project-specific needs (Enterprise League).

10. AssemblyAI – Speech-to-Text API

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2018

AssemblyAI provides enterprise-level speech recognition with features like real-time transcription and speaker separation.

12. Rephrase.ai – Text-to-Video Generation

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2022

Rephrase.ai enables businesses to create personalized video content from text by using synthetic avatars. This platform simplifies video creation without needing actual footage.

13. Writesonic – AI Writing Tool for Marketing

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2021

Funding: $2.6M (Seed)

Writesonic uses GPT-4-based models for writing copy, making it useful for creating SEO-optimized content, ads, and marketing emails for businesses and freelancers alike.

14. Humata – AI for Document Understanding

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2021

Humata leverages AI to parse and understand unstructured data like documents and emails, allowing users to query content in plain language and receive synthesized answers.

15. Veesual – AI for Apparel Visualization

Location: Paris, France

Founded: 2020

Veesual creates realistic 3D renderings of apparel, enhancing e-commerce by providing virtual try-on, which can reduce return rates and improve conversion rates.

16. PlayHT – Text-to-Speech Software

Location: Middletown, Delaware

Founded: 2022

Funding: $500K (Pre-Seed)

PlayHT offers an extensive library of AI voices for converting text into human-like audio, supporting video voiceovers, podcasts, and e-learning projects.

17. Uizard – AI-Powered Design Tool for Non-Designers

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Founded: 2018

Funding: $18.6M (Series A)

Uizard helps non-designers build digital products by quickly transforming ideas into app and web designs through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

18. MOSTLY AI – Synthetic Data Generation

Location: Vienna, Austria

Founded: 2017

MOSTLY AI specializes in creating synthetic data to assist in model training, which preserves privacy and optimizes data generation for industries needing secure datasets.

19. Perplexity – AI for Conversational Search

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2020

Perplexity offers AI-based conversational search, allowing users to search databases with natural language queries, improving accessibility to complex information.

20. Bubble – No-Code App Builder

Location: New York, NY

Founded: 2012

Bubble enables users to create web applications visually, using a drag-and-drop editor, without requiring code — accelerating prototyping for non-technical users.

22. TestFit – AI in Real Estate Modeling

Location: Dallas, TX

Founded: 2017

TestFit provides AI-based site feasibility studies for real estate, allowing developers to assess various design possibilities quickly, improving decision-making and reducing risk.

23. Writer – Brand-Specific AI Writing Assistant

Location: San Francisco, CA

Founded: 2021

Writer provides tailored AI writing tools to ensure brand consistency across content produced by marketing and product teams, boosting productivity while maintaining brand voice.

24. Glean – AI for Workplace Knowledge Management

Location: Palo Alto, CA

Founded: 2019

Funding: $155M (Series C)

Glean offers AI-powered tools for workplace knowledge discovery, helping users quickly locate information across various platforms and ensuring team productivity.

Generative AI Trends and Market Overview

Generative AI is rapidly evolving, and several technical and investment trends have emerged.

Here are some of the most prominent ones: