Who founded Familiar?

Familiar was founded by Mingi Kwon, An Zhu Liu, Xu Zheng in 2026.

Who are Familiar's investors?

Familiar's investors include Y Combinator, Vela Partners.

Where is Familiar headquartered?

Familiar is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Familiar

YC S26

San Francisco, US · Founded 2026 · 8 employees · 2 known investors

Find your way into Familiar

899 people in our graph share verified history with the Familiar team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Paul Kwanunlockedknows An Zhu Liu · together at Stanford University (overlapped)

×2knows the team · via Stanford University

×3knows the team · via Tavus

×2knows the team · via Queen Mary University of London

×3knows the team · via StartX

knows the team · via Yonsei University

Familiar builds an AI video-translation and dubbing model that combines voice cloning and full-face lip-sync in a single system, preserving tone, expressions, and background audio, with support for real-time streams. It offers an API, an MCP server for agents, and a self-serve dashboard for creators and platforms translating video into multiple languages.

AI & Machine Learning Data & Infrastructure Deep Tech Enterprise Software Media & Entertainment Generative AI B2B Entertainment AICanadaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S26)

Familiar was founded in 2026 by Mingi Kwon, An Zhu Liu, and Xu Zheng.

Mingi Kwon inCo-founder · Chief Technology OfficerMingi Kwon, founder of Familiar, holds a PhD in AI from Yonsei University and previously worked on large-scale text-to-video models at Adobe Research, with published research at major AI conferences. He also ran localized YouTube channels with over 400,000 combined subscribers.

An Zhu Liu in 𝕏CEO & Co-founderAn Zhu Liu attended Stanford before leaving, and has worked as a researcher building voice AI and human avatar cloning models. He is the founder of Familiar.

Xu Zheng inCo-founderTheir research background includes numerous publications at AI venues and open-source contributions.

Investors · 2

Y Combinator✓ verifiedSan Francisco · $500K

Vela PartnersSan Francisco · $100K – $500K

In the news

Familiar: Breaking Down Every Language Barrierycombinator.com · Aug 2026

Solana’s Funding Feud Raises Familiar Complaints about Role of VC Investment | PYMNTS.compymnts.com · Mar 2022

How ‘Rogue One’ Brought Back Familiar Facesnytimes.com · Dec 2016

Frequently asked questions

What does Familiar do?: Familiar builds an AI video-translation and dubbing model that combines voice cloning and full-face lip-sync in a single system, preserving tone, expressions, and background audio, with support for real-time streams. It offers an API, an MCP server for agents, and a self-serve dashboard for creators and platforms translating video into multiple languages.
Who founded Familiar?: Familiar was founded by Mingi Kwon, An Zhu Liu, Xu Zheng in 2026.
Who are Familiar's investors?: Familiar's investors include Y Combinator, Vela Partners.
Where is Familiar headquartered?: Familiar is headquartered in San Francisco, US.