Temasek led Soul Machines' 2020 Series B, its own release shows

The persona

Soul Machines is an Auckland, New Zealand company that builds "Digital People," animated avatars driven by what it calls a Digital Brain. The company's own about page, retrieved 16 September 2026, states it was founded in 2016 by Mark Sagar, a double Academy Award winner who previously worked on facial animation at Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Greg Cross, a co-founder of PowerbyProxi, a company Apple acquired in 2017. An earlier company release, republished from Scoop.co.nz on the company's own news page, records that Soul Machines "formally launche[d]" on the strength of a Series A financing built on BabyX, an avatar Sagar developed at the University of Auckland's Bioengineering Institute.

What the documents establish

Two dated company announcements bracket Soul Machines' early funding history. The November 2016 release states a US$7.5 million Series A led by Horizons Ventures with Iconiq Capital, and names Horizons' Phil Chen as incoming executive chairman. The company's January 2020 release states a US$40 million Series B "led by Temasek from Singapore, with participation from Lakestar... and Salesforce Ventures, along with further investment from existing investors Horizons Ventures, University of Auckland Inventors Fund and others." Neither release names Toyota AI Ventures; the round is led by Temasek and dated January 2020, not 2019.

Character versus company

Soul Machines' Digital People, such as the Bank ABC assistant Fatema or SK-II's Yumi, are commercial deployments built by the company for named clients; the funding rounds described here belong to Soul Machines the corporation, not to any individual Digital Person, and neither release attributes revenue or performance to a specific avatar. Quotes in the releases come from named Soul Machines and investor executives, not from any animated character.

What to watch

A reader who has seen Soul Machines' Series B linked to Toyota AI Ventures or dated to 2019 should treat that pairing as unconfirmed by the company's own news archive, which names Temasek and dates the announcement to January 2020; this is a direct reading of the two releases rather than an extension beyond them.

• Did Toyota AI Ventures invest in Soul Machines through a later, separately announced round?
• What stake or board role did Temasek receive in exchange for leading the Series B?
• How has Soul Machines' investor list changed in any funding announced after January 2020?

The company's own releases, four years apart, describe a straightforward escalation from a US$7.5 million Series A to a US$40 million Series B, and neither document supports the specific investor pairing or year originally associated with this entry.