Funding timeline

Higgsfield

Higgsfield is the San Francisco AI video platform founded by Alex Mashrabov, Snap's former head of generative AI. It went from an US$8M seed to a US$400M Series B at US$5.4B led by DST Global in under three years, reaching US$700M annualized revenue and 30M+ users as Kazakhstan's first unicorn.

Founded: October 2023 (San Francisco)
Headquarters: San Francisco
Founders: Alex Mashrabov (CEO); Yerzat Dulat (CTO); Mahi de Silva (co-founder)
Sector: AI video & image generation (browser-based platform)
Flagship products: Diffuse (early app); Soul 2.0 (image); Keyframes (storyboards); Cinema Studio; Marketing Studio
Run-rate revenue: ~US$10M ARR (Apr 2025) → US$100M (Sep 2025) → US$200M (Jan 2026) → US$700M annualized (Aug 2026)
Total raised: US$538M (Seed $8M + Series A $50M + ext $80M + Series B $400M)
Latest valuation: US$5.4B (Series B, Aug 2026)
Valuation arc: undisclosed (seed) → ~US$1B (Sep 2025) → US$1.3B (Jan 2026) → US$5.4B (Aug 2026)
Users: 11M (Sep 2025) → 15M+ (Jan 2026) → 30M+ across 200 countries (Aug 2026)
Rounds recorded: 4
Total raised: $538M

higgsfield.ai

Overview

Higgsfield is the San Francisco-based AI video and image generation platform founded in October 2023 by Alex Mashrabov — Snap's former Head of Generative AI, who earlier co-founded AI Factory (acquired by Snap for US$166M in 2020) — alongside CTO Yerzat Dulat and co-founder Mahi de Silva. It launched a browser-based 'click-to-video' platform in March 2025 and became Kazakhstan's first unicorn just five months later. It raised an US$8M Menlo Ventures-led seed (April 2024), a US$50M Series A led by GFT Ventures (September 2025, ~US$1B), an US$80M Series A extension with Accel and AI Capital Partners (January 2026, US$1.3B), and — announced 17 August 2026 — a US$400M Series B led by DST Global at a US$5.4B valuation, more than quadrupling its January price in eight months. By the Series B the company reported US$700M in annualized revenue and 30 million users across 200 countries, driven by agentic products that automate multi-scene production.

Funding Timeline

Every disclosed equity round for Higgsfield, newest to oldest, with lead and participating investors where reported. Data is stored oldest-first; the timeline is displayed latest-first.

Aug 17, 2026
Series B
$400Mat $5.4B valuationLatest
Led by DST GlobalTribe CapitalGrowth Equity at Goldman Sachs AlternativesSmash CapitalFifth WallValor CapitalIntel CapitalLiberty Global Tech VenturesMirae Asset CapitalNTT DOCOMO VenturesAccelMenlo VenturesAI Capital PartnersGFT VenturesCapra VenturesBAM Corner PointBroadLight CapitalNatalia Vodianova Arnault
Led by DST Global, more than quadrupling the January valuation in eight months. Annualized revenue reached US$700M; users topped 30M across 200 countries (doubled since January); agentic-product users grew 42x in three months after the May 2026 Supercomputer rollout. Proceeds fund R&D, global infrastructure, AI hiring and go-to-market, plus the Higgsfield For Good education initiative.
Source ↗
Jan 15, 2026
Series A Extension
$80Mat $1.3B valuation
Led by AccelAI Capital PartnersMenlo VenturesGFT Ventures
Official release frames it as 'participation from Accel, AI Capital Partners (Alpha Intelligence Capital's US-based fund), and Menlo Ventures and others,' bringing total Series A above US$130M at over US$1.3B. Antoine Blondeau described AI Capital Partners as leading the round's 'strategic push'; several outlets credit Accel as lead. Disclosed US$200M annual run rate, doubled from US$100M in about two months.
Source ↗
Sep 9, 2025
Series A
$50Mat $1B valuation
Led by GFT VenturesBroadLight CapitalNextEquity PartnersAI Capital PartnersMenlo VenturesAlpha Square GroupSaaStr Fund
Oversubscribed and capped at US$50M. The ~US$1B valuation is reported (media widely described it as Kazakhstan's first unicorn) rather than officially disclosed. At close the platform had 11M registered users and 1.2B+ social impressions.
Source ↗
Apr 3, 2024
Seed
$8M
Led by Menlo VenturesK5 GlobalAlpha Intelligence Capital
Announced alongside the rollout of the Diffuse app in select markets; Menlo Ventures led, with K5 Global and Alpha Intelligence Capital among early backers. Valuation not disclosed. Coverage framed Mashrabov — Snap's former GenAI head — as taking on OpenAI's Sora.
Source ↗

The Story Behind the Numbers

From Snap's GenAI Chief to the Attention Economy

Alex Mashrabov co-founded AI Factory — the personalized-video startup Snap acquired for US$166M in 2020 — then ran Snap's generative-AI work as Head of Generative AI, shipping the MyAI chatbot (150M+ users) and viral GenAI AR effects. In September 2023 he left to found Higgsfield with Kazakh AI researcher Yerzat Dulat (CTO) and veteran operator Mahi de Silva, spending about a year in stealth before launching a browser-based 'click-to-video' platform in March 2025. The thesis: build for the attention economy, where social-media marketers and brands need cinematic, character-consistent video at scale, not just prompt-based clips.

The Fastest Ramp in AI Video

Higgsfield's trajectory compressed several years of growth into months. The platform went from US$0 to US$10M ARR within weeks of its March 2025 launch, to ~US$100M within five months, to US$200M annual run rate by January 2026 (doubling in about two months), and to US$700M annualized by the August 2026 Series B — a pace the company benchmarked against Lovable, Cursor, OpenAI, Slack and Zoom. Users grew from 11M (September 2025) to 15M+ (January 2026) to 30M+ across 200 countries, with professional social-media marketers driving roughly 85% of activity.

A Valuation That Quadrupled in Eight Months

The Series B's US$5.4B price more than quadrupled the US$1.3B set in January 2026, itself up from a ~US$1B unicorn round five months earlier. The round's shape is the subplot: DST Global led, while a strategic tier of corporate and sovereign investors — Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs Alternatives' Growth Equity, Liberty Global Tech Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital and NTT DOCOMO Ventures — signalled that compute, connectivity and distribution giants see Higgsfield as infrastructure for the next era of visual media. CEO Mashrabov framed compute as the moat: one minute of video is like processing 60,000 words, making reserved capacity a competitive necessity against Synthesia and Runway.

Kazakhstan's First Unicorn Goes Global

Higgsfield was widely reported as Kazakhstan's first unicorn at the September 2025 Series A — a point of national and diaspora significance given Mashrabov and Dulat's origins. The Series B doubled down on the APAC path: Korea's Mirae Asset Capital and Japan's NTT DOCOMO Ventures joined as strategic investors, with proceeds earmarked for a dedicated Asia-Pacific go-to-market team, alongside the Higgsfield Academy and the Higgsfield For Good program (partnering with NGO YGA to put AI visual tools in the hands of 70,000 students and 13,000 educators).

From Viral Toy to Enterprise Backbone

Higgsfield's early notoriety came from celebrity viral videos — Madonna, Will Smith and Snoop Dogg were named users — but the company has worked to reposition as enterprise infrastructure, with Marketing Studio for advertisers and Cinema Studio for filmmakers, and agentic products (after the May 2026 Supercomputer rollout) that automate multi-scene production and grew 42x in three months. The durable question is the same one facing every consumer-born AI tool: whether it can consolidate into a platform with staying power before the next hot model arrives.

More in the Atlas

Higgsfield's lead investors are profiled in the Investor Atlas when their firms join the directory. Track who backs every frontier AI round on the Funding Leaderboard.