AI Startup Captions Growing to 15K SF in 71 Fifth Avenue Move
By Abigail Nehring February 23, 2024 1:00 pm
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Artificial intelligence has arrived on New York’s doorstep.
AI video-editing startup Captions signed a three-year lease for 15,202 square feet across the entire sixth floor of 71 Fifth Avenue between East 14th and East 15th streets, Commercial Observer has learned.
Asking rent was $85 per square foot, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
Captions will relocate from an office at an undisclosed address in SoHo, according to job listings on its website. The source said it will double its footprint with the move to Union Square.
Captions was founded in New York City in 2021 by former Microsoft engineer Gaurav Misra and Dwight Churchill, who previously was a product developer for Marcus by Goldman Sachs and marketing platform Klaviyo. The AI-powered app, which was recently featured in the New York Times style section, allows users to add captions to videos and translate them into other languages.
The startup raised $25 million in its most recent funding round in June, which included investors Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and SV Angel, according to the company.
And Captions isn’t the only AI firm hunting for office space. AI firms have recently given a boost to New York City’s and San Francisco’s struggling office markets.
The growing business of AI contributed 1.7 million square feet of new demand for office space in January, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield (CWK). That includes ChatGPT creator OpenAI looking for about 60,000 square feet in New York City.
JLL’s Kyle Riker arranged the deal for Captions. Mitchell Konsker, Benjamin Bass, Daniel Turkewitz and Kyle Young, also with JLL, represented landlords Madison Capital and Lubert-Adler along with Madison’s Jonathan Ratner and Cindy Chang.
“As employers continue to look for the ideal workplace, 71 Fifth Avenue provides character, comfort and location, a trinity of elements that are ideally suited to digital and creative companies like Captions as they work on changing the world,” Konsker said in a statement.
Riker declined to comment.
Other tenants in the 132,121-square-foot building just west of Union Square include payment platform Adyen, research and advisory firm Forrester Research and The New School. WeWork also recently announced it planned to retain its space at 71 Fifth, as CO previously reported.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
