Runway Raises $308M In Series D Funding Said To Value The AI Firm At $3B

Runway, an emerging provider of artificial intelligence technology, has raised $308 million in Series D funding.

A specific valuation was not mentioned in the company’s announcement of the transaction, but the funding round values the company at about $3 billion, according to a person familiar with the financials.

As the media and entertainment business has sized up the potential of AI, a sensitive area for unions and the creative community, Runway has attained a notable profile. The company inked a deal with Lionsgate last September to augment the film and TV studio with Runway AI tools. Michael Burns, vice chairman of Lionsgate, told the Wall Street Journal when that agreement was announced that it would save the company “millions and millions of dollars” in production costs. “We do a lot of action movies, so we blow a lot of things up and that is one of the things Runway does,” Burns said.

In a blog post, Runway described the latest round of funding as a “major milestone.” The new funds will help pay for an expansion of Runway Studios. The AI film and animation studio is “dedicated to producing original content using the state-of-the-art foundation models pioneered by our research team,” the company said.

The Series D round was led by General Atlantic, with Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, NVIDIA, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 participating, along with other new and existing investors.

The blog post noted the company’s introduction this week of Gen4, a series of AI models designed for “media generation and world consistency.” The models enable “precise generation of consistent characters, locations and objects across scenes,” the company added. “These 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.”