Runway AI Inc. has raised $308 million in a new round of funding that more than doubles the company’s valuation — a sign of investor enthusiasm for startups building artificial intelligence software that can generate videos.
The deal, which is set to be announced Thursday, pushes Runway’s value to just over $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private. Private equity firm General Atlantic led the round, which closed late last year. Other investors included SoftBank Group Corp. and Nvidia Corp.
The New York-based company kicked off the frenzy around AI video generators in early 2023 with the release of a model that could produce slightly choppy-looking three-second clips based on written prompts such as “drone footage of a desert landscape.” Two years later, the competition has increased significantly, with tech companies including OpenAI and Pika rolling out similar services.
Earlier this week, Runway unveiled a new AI model called Gen-4 that aims to let users create videos with consistent characters, objects and backgrounds — a milestone that may mark a leap ahead of some of its rivals.
Runway co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Cris Valenzuela told Bloomberg News that the company plans to use the funding to support its research efforts for future AI models and beef up an existing in-house team of creative workers, among other efforts.
The company plans to bring on more filmmakers, screenwriters, producers and editors who create films with Runway’s software. It currently has 100 employees, about a dozen of which — along with some contractors — support its content creation efforts, Valenzuela said.
