Runway, an AI startup focused on creativity tools, has announced a $141 million extension to its Series C funding round. This brings its total capital raised to approximately $237 million.
This round was backed by tech giants Google, NVIDIA, and Salesforce, alongside existing investors and the company's earlier ally, Felicis Ventures, which led the initial $50 million Series C round in December.
Founded in 2018, Runway has been at the forefront of integrating AI with creativity, aiming to shape a new era of creative tools that are accessible to artists and creators worldwide. They offer a suite of over 30 "AI Magic Tools" which have been adopted extensively by Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies to generate unique narratives and streamline workflows.
Earlier this year, Runway made waves with the launch of its Gen 1 and Gen 2 video generation models. While Gen 1 requires users to provide a video source that, combined with a text prompt or still photo, is manipulated to create a new silent, short film, Gen-2 generates videos from text alone. The rising popularity of this tool among content creators and the proliferation of impressive short films on social media demonstrate the product's tremendous potential.
"Whisper of the Wind"
— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) June 29, 2023
A text-2-video story about life and nature, created almost entirely by AI, with a little help from me (audio on).
Written by ChatGPT
Voiced by @elevenlabsio
Generated in @runwayml
Prompted by @nickfloats pic.twitter.com/9POZsfxhDr
Runway's current focus, according to CEO Cristobal Valenzuela, is on improving the consistency and controllability of its video generation models. He noted, "It’s much more complicated to generate a video from a written prompt than to create a single image," thereby highlighting the complexities they are working to overcome, such as generating a video for a prompt as specific as "waves lapping on a beach at sunset."
With the latest financing round, Runway's valuation has surged to an impressive $1.5 billion, marking a threefold increase since December when it was valued at $500 million. This announcement comes hot on the heels of Inflection AI's $1.3 billion funding round, underscoring the continuing investor appetite for generative AI startups, even as skyrocketing valuations spark concern.
Nonetheless, the investment emphasizes the potential of AI in video generation, a field that remains relatively unexplored compared to other areas like chatbots and image generators.
Runway received a vote of confidence from Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, who stated, "Generative AI is transforming the content creation industry,” adding that Runway’s technology was "breathing new life into stories and ideas that were not imaginable."
As Runway's journey unfolds, its exploration of AI in video generation continues to lower barriers to content creation and push the boundaries of storytelling and creative expression.