Descript
The AI-powered audio/video editor founded in 2017 by ex-Groupon CEO Andrew Mason — born as an internal tool of his failed audio-tour startup Detour — that lets creators edit media by editing a transcript.
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- Location
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Country
- United States
- Founded
- 2017
- Founder
- Andrew Mason, co-founder and former CEO of Groupon
- Product
- Text-based audio and video editor with AI voice cloning (Overdub)
- Origin
- Spun out of Detour, Mason's audio-tour startup, with $5M from Andreessen Horowitz
- Series C
- $50 million, November 2022, led by the OpenAI Startup Fund
- Total raised
- $100 million (2022)
- Reported valuation
- ~$550 million (The Information, October 2022)
Overview
Descript is a San Francisco-based audio and video editing platform founded in 2017 by Andrew Mason, the former CEO of Groupon (TechCrunch). Its defining idea: edit media by editing text. The platform generates an instant transcript of audio or video, and cutting a sentence from the transcript removes it from the recording — “as easy as editing a doc or slides,” as Mason put it (TechCrunch).
Born from a failed walking-tour startup
Descript was not planned — it was discovered. In 2013 Mason was famously fired as Groupon’s CEO; his second act, Detour, made podcast-like audio walking tours and required producing hours of spoken-word content (Fast Company). Editing those tours was miserable: “trying to edit waveforms… is tedious and requires you to disengage your editorial brain and engage your engineering brain,” Mason told Fast Company (Fast Company). Detour built its own editing tooling to survive — and then Mason spun that technology out into a new company with $5 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz (Fast Company). Descript launched as a Mac app and web service that transcribed audio into written text and let users rearrange or delete the audio through a word-processor-like interface (Fast Company).
The OpenAI bet
In November 2022 Descript raised $50 million in a Series C led by the OpenAI Startup Fund — only the fund’s second investment, after Mem — with Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital and Daniel Gross participating (TechCrunch). The round brought total funding to $100 million; The Information reported a valuation around $550 million, more than double the $260 million figure from January 2021, though Mason declined to confirm it (TechCrunch). Alongside the raise, Descript unveiled its Storyboard redesign — background removal, multitrack screen recording, stock media — and its Overdub voice-cloning feature, powered by the 2019 acquisition of the Canadian AI company Lyrebird (TechCrunch). By 2021 its customers already included NPR, VICE, The Washington Post and The New York Times (TechCrunch).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not assert Descript’s 2023–2026 product developments or the SquadCast acquisition, which were not verified from fully read sources. The ~$550 million valuation is The Information’s figure as relayed by TechCrunch. No Descript first-party material was cited.
Timeline
- 2013
- Andrew Mason is famously fired as CEO of Groupon, a company he co-founded; his second act is Detour, a startup making podcast-like audio walking tours.
- 2017
- Producing "a boatload" of spoken-word content for Detour, Mason's team finds editing waveforms tedious and builds its own tool; with $5 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz he spins it out as Descript — a Mac app and web service that transcribes audio to text and lets users edit the audio through a word-processor-like interface.
- 2019
- Descript acquires the Canadian AI company Lyrebird to power its Overdub voice-cloning feature.
- 2022
- Descript raises $50 million in a Series C led by the OpenAI Startup Fund — the fund's second investment after Mem — with Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital and Daniel Gross participating; total raised reaches $100 million and The Information reports a ~$550 million valuation, more than double January 2021's $260 million.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The ~$550 million valuation comes from The Information's reporting as relayed by TechCrunch; Mason declined to confirm a post-money figure.
- The SquadCast acquisition and 2023-2026 product developments were not verified from fully read sources and are not asserted.
Sources
2 sources (2 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built only from independent sources fetched and read in full: Fast Company (tier2) and TechCrunch (tier2). No Descript first-party material was cited. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited.
- Supports: Mason's 2013 Groupon firing, Detour audio-tour startup, waveform-editing frustration, $5M Andreessen Horowitz seed, spin-out of internal tooling into Descript, word-processor interface mechanics, 7-cent/minute pricing Open original source
- Supports: 2017 founding by former Groupon CEO Mason, $50M Series C led by OpenAI Startup Fund, a16z/Redpoint/Spark/Daniel Gross participation, $100M total raised, ~$550M valuation per The Information, Detour spin-off and Bose acquisition, Lyrebird 2019 acquisition powering Overdub, transcript-based editing mechanics, Descript Storyboard redesign, NPR/VICE/WaPo/NYT customers as of 2021, ~100 employees Open original source
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