Runway, a startup developing a range of generative AI models for media production, including video-generating models, has raised $308 million in a Series D funding round.
General Atlantic led the round, which had participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Nvidia, SoftBank, and others. The fresh capital will be put toward AI research and hiring, Runway said in a press release, as well to expand its Runway Studios film and animation production arm.
To date, Runway has raised $536.5 million, according to Crunchbase.
“Today marks an important milestone as Runway announces a significant next step towards our goal of creating a new media ecosystem with world simulators,” the company wrote in the press release. “[Our recent] advancements aren’t merely incremental improvements; they form the foundation for an entirely new approach to media — an ecosystem built on AI systems that can simulate our world.”
Runway offers a suite of AI media tools, including video- and image-generating models. It faces stiff competition in the video generation space, including from OpenAI and Google. But the company has fought to differentiate itself, inking a deal with a major Hollywood studio and earmarking millions of dollars to fund films using AI-produced footage.
This week, Runway released Gen-4, a video-generating model that the company claims can create consistent characters, locations, and objects across scenes, maintain “coherent world environments,” and regenerate elements from different perspectives and positions within scenes. With products like Gen-4 and its recently launched API for video models, Runway hopes to hit $300 million in annualized revenue this year.
One possible roadblock is a lawsuit brought by artists against Runway and other generative AI companies that accuses the defendants of training their models on copyrighted artwork without permission. Runway argues that the doctrine known as fair use shields it from legal repercussions. It isn’t yet clear whether the company will prevail.
Updated 6:21 a.m. Pacific: The original version of this story mistakenly indicated that Runway had raised $300 million in its Series D. It has, in fact, raised $308 million. We regret the error.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch