EXCLUSIVE: Flawless — the UK–U.S. firm that invested roughly $100 million developing SAG-AFTRA–approved AI dubbing systems that have been applied to films such as Fall — has sold off its intellectual property.
In a move that raises questions about the company’s path forward, TBellScout, a startup owned by Dutch technology billionaire Steven Schuurman, has purchased Flawless’ TrueSync dubbing platform along with its DeepEditor post-production AI tool.
Schuurman, who is the founder of the Dutch software company Elastic, confirmed the purchase to Deadline but declined to elaborate. Scott Mann, a Flawless co-founder, also declined to comment.
Deadline has learned that the technology assets were held by Flawless Holdings Limited, the UK trading entity established in 2020.
Earlier this month Flawless Holdings Limited went into administration — the UK procedure comparable to Chapter 11 in the U.S. — but with a key difference: an insolvency firm, BTG, assumed control of the company’s operations and proceeded to sell the intellectual property to TBellScout, rather than the directors remaining in charge.
BTG was appointed administrator by Sprk Capital, a UK tech lender. Sprk Capital reportedly holds fixed and floating charges over Flawless, which are forms of security a lender takes over a borrower’s assets.
The exact details surrounding the IP transaction have not been made public. The sale followed the appointment of Amit Kapur as co-CEO of Flawless in March; Kapur had served on the company’s board since 2024. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Mann and fellow founder Nick Lynes continue to run Flawless AI Inc., the U.S. arm through which they built studio relationships and pursued deals using a consent-first approach to applying AI in filmmaking. The pair are reportedly looking into launching a new enterprise.
Flawless raised its roughly $100 million from private backers rather than traditional venture capital firms. The company’s suite of filmmaking tools centered on three principal components: TrueSync, a visual dubbing system that was listed among Time magazine’s Best Inventions; DeepEditor, which enables dialogue and performance edits without expensive reshoots by matching actors’ mouth movements to new lines; and Artistic Rights Treasury, a platform for managing rights.
The company’s tech has been used on hundreds of Hollywood projects, though many studios have chosen not to disclose their use of AI, meaning much of Flawless’ work has remained out of the spotlight.
One prominent example is the Swedish science-fiction film Watch the Skies, which became the first full-length theatrical feature to employ immersive AI dubbing in its English-language release. Flawless worked with XYZ Films to bring that English version to U.S. cinemas.
Other title credits that have used Flawless’ translation or dubbing services include Michel Gondry’s The Book of Solutions, the judo thriller Tatami, the South Korean film Smugglers, Stéphan Castang’s Vincent Must Die, and the Berlin Film Festival opener The Light.
Mann is not only a co-founder but also a filmmaker: he directed the 2022 thriller Fall, about two friends stranded atop a 2,000-foot radio tower. Fall served as a practical demonstration of Flawless’ capabilities, employing AI-based visual dubbing to remove profanity so the film could attain a PG-13 rating without costly reshoots.
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