Mirelo, a Germany-based foundation model company focused on sound for videos, has raised a $41 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Atlantic.vc and TriplePoint Capital also participated, along with notable angel investors: Yariv Adan, Alex Berriche, Léon Bottou, Burkay Gur, Thomas Hofmann, Antoine Le Nel, Coco Mao, Arthur Mensch, Laura Modiano, Jakob Uszkoreit, and Thomas Wolf.
Founded in 2023, Mirelo is led by CEO CJ Simon-Gabriel and CTO Florian Wenzel, two senior AI researchers who met at AWS Labs and set out to simplify a task that many creators know well: the slow, manual process of searching stock libraries and syncing sound effects frame by frame. Mirelo’s product approach is to let users upload a video and generate synchronized sound effects for what’s happening on screen within seconds, a capability the company positions as increasingly important as dynamic content expands across AI-generated video and adaptive gaming experiences.
In recent weeks, Mirelo also released Mirelo SFX v1.5, a video-to-sound-effect model available via a self-serve API and the Mirelo Studio web app. Index Ventures said Mirelo’s models are lightweight, requiring “50 times less compute than typical LLMs,” while targeting high-quality output based on external evaluations. Index also highlighted Mirelo’s stated approach to training data, noting that the models are built using public and purchased sound libraries and are paired with revenue-sharing partnerships intended to respect artists’ rights.
KEY QUOTES:
“Think of the difference between talkies and silent films – video without sound has so much less feeling and atmosphere. Mirelo’s first step is about democratising access, empowering everyone to create the sound that their (AI) video deserves. But we’ll also empower professionals to rework audio, to do more of what they love, to be more expressive and imaginative in what they can achieve, while handling the boring stuff such as synchronization. Our bigger mission is to become the audio layer for all visual content across videos, gaming, social media, films and beyond.”
CJ Simon-Gabriel, CEO, Mirelo
“Sound is too often an afterthought in video production, yet it’s what determines whether a video or game truly resonates with its audience. Mirelo gives creators a new form of expression, letting them move faster and sound better. The team led by CJ and Florian combines cutting-edge AI expertise with an unparalleled focus on audio’s emotional power. It is a combination that positions them to reshape how the world experiences sound.”
Georgia Stevenson, Partner, Index Ventures
