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New York-based raised $308 million in a new round at about double its valuation from less than two years ago.

The new round — led by — values the AI video startup at more than $3 billion, per . In June 2023, the company raised a $141 million extension to its December 2022 $50 million Series C from , , 1 and others at a reported $1.5 billion valuation.

Other investors in the new round include Nvidia, , and .

Runway makes software that lets users create videos using text prompts or images. Earlier in the week, Runway unveiled its new AI model, Gen-4, that allows users to create videos with consistent characters and backgrounds.

Last fall, the company signed a deal with production company to create a customized video-generation model.

The startup plans to use the fresh cash to develop AI focusing on its film and animation studio. Founded in 2018, it has raised more than $540 million, .

AI dollars

Big money continues to pour into AI.

Per ¸½½üÉÏÃÅ’s global funding report, AI was the leading sector for venture funding in the first quarter, with $59.6 billion invested. The first quarter marked the strongest quarter for AI funding ever, with an astonishing 53% of global funding going to the AI sector alone.

Of course, that was significantly helped by , which raised the largest private round ever, a $40 billion funding that values the company at $300 billion.

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Related reading:

• Q1 Global Startup Funding Posts Strongest Quarter Since Q2 2022 With A Third Going To Massive OpenAI Deal  
• Eye On AI: Massive OpenAI Deal Masks AI’s Slow Quarter
• AI Funding Explosion: Inflection AI Nabs $1.3B, Runway and Typeface Also Raise Big

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