Runway is a startup that develops a variety of generator AI models for media production, including video generation models, raising $308 million in the Series D funding round.
General Atlantic led the round and participated from Fidelity Management and Research Company, Bailey Gifford, Nvidia, Softbank and more. Runway also states in a press release that it will be deployed for AI research and employment to expand the Runway Studios Film and Animation Production Arm.
According to CrunchBase, Runway has raised $536.5 million to date.
“Today we mark a significant milestone as the runway announces important next steps towards its goal of creating a new media ecosystem with global simulators,” the company wrote in a press release. “(Recent) advancements are not merely progressive improvements. They form the basis of an entirely new approach to media, an ecosystem built on AI systems that can simulate our world.”
Runway offers a range of AI media tools, including video and image generation models. They face tough competition in the video generation sector, such as Openai and Google. However, the company fought to differentiate itself, signing contracts with major Hollywood studios and collecting millions of dollars to fund the film using AI-generated footage.
This week, Runway released the Gen-4. Gen-4 is a video generation model that claims to create consistent characters, locations and objects throughout the scene, maintain a “consistent world environment” and play elements from different perspectives and positions within the scene. With products that have launched the Gen-4 and recently released APIs for video models, Runway hopes to reach $300 million in annual revenue this year.
One possible obstacle is the lawsuits filed by artists against runways and other generative AI companies. The runway claims that a doctrine known as fair use protects it from legal implications. It is not yet clear whether the company will win.
Updated at 6:21am Pacific: The original version of this story incorrectly showed that Runway raised $300 million in Series D. In fact, it raised $308 million. I regret the error.
