Higgsfield Hits Unicorn Status: Ex-Snap AI Lead Secures $1.3B Valuation in Video Reasoning Breakthrough

Higgsfield AI, the video generation startup founded by former Snap Inc. executive Alex Mashrabov, has officially achieved "unicorn" status. On Thursday, January 15, 2026, the company announced it has raised $80 million in a Series A extension, propelling its valuation to $1.3 billion.



The round was led by Accel, with significant participation from Menlo Ventures, GFT Ventures, and AI Capital Partners. The funding follows a meteoric rise for the startup, which has reportedly reached a $200 million annualized revenue run rate in less than nine months—a pace of growth that outstrips early-stage records set by Slack and even OpenAI.

The "Snap" Pedigree
The industry's confidence in Higgsfield stems largely from its founder, Alex Mashrabov.

The Track Record: Mashrabov previously co-founded AI Factory, the computer vision startup that powered Snapchat’s popular "Cameos" feature before being acquired by Snap for $166 million in 2019.

The Snap Era: Before launching Higgsfield in late 2023, Mashrabov served as Snap’s Director of Generative AI, where he led the development of "My AI" and AR effects used by hundreds of millions of users.

The Pivot: Along with co-founders Yerzat Dulat and Mahi de Silva, Mashrabov left Snap to solve what he called the "production tax"—the extreme difficulty and cost of creating professional-grade video content for social media.

"Reasoning" Over Just Generation
While competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Kuaishou’s Kling focus on the raw power of their foundation models, Higgsfield is winning by acting as a "Video Reasoning Engine."

The Aggregator Model: Higgsfield doesn't just rely on its own models; it integrates a suite of top-tier engines—including Sora, Google’s Veo, and Kling—into a single, production-ready dashboard.

Consistency is Key: The platform's proprietary "reasoning" layer allows creators to maintain strict character and brand consistency across different shots—a feat that still plagues most standalone AI video tools.

Click-to-Video: Designed for the "attention economy," Higgsfield’s mobile-first tools allow users to bypass complex prompting. Features like URL-to-Ad can turn a product landing page into a suite of high-conversion video ads in minutes.


A New Market Leader for Marketers
Higgsfield has successfully carved out a niche that is arguably more lucrative than "Hollywood" style AI filmmaking.

85% Marketing Usage: The company revealed that the vast majority of its users are social media marketers and agencies.

Commercial Viability: Unlike many AI tools used for "memes" or experimentation, 80% of Higgsfield's active users are already producing paid commercial work on the platform.

The Scale: The company plans to use the new $80M injection to quadruple its workforce from 70 to 300 employees by the end of 2026, focusing on international expansion and deep enterprise sales.

"Traditional video production wasn't built for the pace modern marketing demands," Mashrabov said during the announcement. "We built Higgsfield so video can be produced like software—fast iteration, tight control, and repeatable output."