San Francisco-based Lamina Labs, co-founded by Nepali entrepreneurs Sudip Rokaya and Kartikesh Mishra, has secured an additional $1.3 million in follow-on funding. This brings the company’s total funding to $4.8 million. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team and scale its flagship product, Simi. Simi supports over 80 languages and transforms user-submitted texts, documents, or website links into whiteboard-style animated videos within seconds. Kathmandu, September 25, 2023.
The startup co-founded by Sudip Rokaya and Kartikesh Mishra recently raised an additional $1.3 million. Previously, the company secured $3 million in seed funding, bringing total capital raised to $4.8 million. Lamina Labs obtained $500,000 from Y Combinator and $3 million from its initial investors, alongside this latest follow-on investment. Co-founder Sudip Rokaya stated, “We have now raised a total of $4.8 million, up from the initial $3 million.”
Among the company’s investors are Y Combinator and Foundation Capital. Link Ventures has included Lamina Labs in its 2026 portfolio, recognizing it as a company developing a ‘visual output layer’ for AI. With this funding, Lamina Labs aims to grow its engineering team and scale up the Simi product. Simi rapidly converts text prompts, documents, or website links from users into whiteboard-style animated videos, available in more than 80 languages, including Nepali. Users can choose video length and format based on platform requirements, such as YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram Reels. Within 12 days of launch, Simi amassed nearly 4,000 users and 187 paying customers. According to Link Ventures, the number of paying customers has now surpassed 190. Initially targeting the education sector, the product has seen higher usage among small and domestic businesses in the US, the founders said. Lamina Labs is the first fully Nepali-founded team to be selected for Y Combinator’s Spring 2026 batch. Co-founder Rokaya hails from Humla-Simikot, while Kartikesh Mishra is from Rautahat. The two met while studying at MIT. The flagship product, Simi, is named after Rokaya’s birthplace, Simikot.
