Mirage (formerly Captions)

1. 2023-06-22

   More than 100,000 daily actives in the first six months on the App Store; more than 3M creators

   [3]

2. 2024-07-09

   More than 10M creators; more than 3M videos a month; team from 15 to 60

   "We hit 10M+ global creators"

   [2]

3. 2025-09-04

   Captions becomes Mirage; its own video foundation model

   "The way we see it, the real race for AI video hasn't begun."

   [5]

4. 2026-03-24

   $75M non-dilutive financing; more than 20M users; more than 250M videos

   "enable anyone, anywhere to make a polished video"

   [1]

Acquisition channels

The App Store and the short-video ecosystem; the product was built on the rise of TikTok (secondary data) [8]. The output (captioned and dubbed video) circulates on the platforms. The claim that more than 3M creators had used it in 2023 is in the official Series B post [3].

Loop

A creator makes a video, posts it on social, a watching creator finds the app, a new creator arrives. After 2025 a second loop: brands and agencies through Mirage Studio, ad output, 8,000 credits [5].

Activation

The first captioned video on mobile. The first version was built in two days and reached 500,000 users over a year and a half without updates, which shows how simple activation was (editorial summary) [6].

Retention evidence

No retention evidence. Daily actives were above 100,000 in 2023 [3]; nothing disclosed since. The financing fund's condition, "proven distribution and strong unit economics", is an indirect third-party signal on unit economics [1].

Role of pricing

Subscription for consumers, credits for brands: Studio Business at $399/month for 8,000 credits [5]. Revenue appears in no official source [1].

Distribution moves

A feature a week: "every engineer should ship a marketable product every week" [6]; "world-first generative features" [2]; the rebrand to move upmarket [4]; SOC 2 and case stories in the blog archive [9]. A $100M commitment to generative video research [2].

Team

60 people in July 2024; from 15 to 60 in a year [2].

The five questions of the Growth Claim Check, applied to this company's public claims.

Test your own claim with the same five questions: Growth Claim Check →

• Revenue has never been disclosed; the "AI lab" positioning raises research spend, with a $100M commitment [2].
• The rebrand risks splitting the company between the consumer app and the model and B2B goals; the competitor list is D-ID, Synthesia, Hour One [5].
• The own-model strategy is capital-intensive compared with HeyGen's "profit on every transaction" and Higgsfield's orchestration approach (opinion) [4].

This section is opinion; a reading, not a source.

1. 01

   (opinion) A product built in two days growing on its own for a year and a half shows that riding the right platform wave beats marketing; in Turkey the creator-economy wave is still running.

2. 02

   (opinion) Telling a growth story without revenue works on investors but is no yardstick for the reader; ask for the definition of "user".

3. 03

   (opinion) Moving from creators to brands raises revenue and users, but two products demand two distributions; too early for a small team.

4. 04

   (opinion) Non-dilutive growth financing is rare in Turkey; its counterpart is revenue-based financing, which also demands unit-economics proof.

A question for you: remove this company's logo and drop the loop onto your own product. Which node stays empty?

Numbers are the references in the text. An 'opened' source was read by the researcher; 'secondary' ones are verified against their primary source before publication.

1. [1]
   Announcing Mirage's $75M growth financing with General Catalyst

   Mirage blog · 2026-03-24 · opened

   “Our goal has always been simple: enable anyone, anywhere to make a polished video.”

2. [2]
   Captions announces Series C to invest $100M in AI video research in New York

   Captions blog · 2024-07-09 · opened

   “We hit 10M+ global creators, launched a collection of world-first generative features”

3. [3]
   Captions announces a $25 million Series B

   Captions blog · 2023-06-22 · opened

   Note: more than 100,000 daily actives in the first six months; more than 3M creators

4. [4]
   Introducing Mirage: The future of video starts now

   Mirage blog · 2025-09-04 · opened

   “We've trained the Mirage model from the ground up for pacing, framing, and attention dynamics unique to the format.”

5. [5]
   Captions rebrands as Mirage, expands beyond creator tools to AI video research

   TechCrunch · 2025-09-04 · opened

   “The way we see it, the real race for AI video hasn't begun.”

6. [6]
   How to win in the AI era: Gaurav Misra

   Lenny's Newsletter (editorial summary; no transcript) · 2025-03-27 · opened

   “every engineer should ship a marketable product every week · why it still grew to 500K users with no updates or support”

7. [7]
   Invest Like the Best EP.405

   Podwise (headings only) · 2025-01-07 · secondary

   Note: episode headings; no verbatim quote

8. [8]
   Captions (app)

   Wikipedia · accessed 2026-10-05 · secondary

   Note: secondary data: founding, founders, AlpacaML acquisition

9. [9]
   Mirage blog archive

   Mirage · accessed 2026-10-05 · opened

   “SOC 2 (2026-03-09); case stories”

• Revenue, subscription price, daily active users after 2024.
• Verbatim quotes from the Lenny and Invest Like the Best transcripts (not accessible).
• The "unexpected $500,000 in the Apple account" anecdote from the founder interview (page 403).