The AI video-generation startup Runway has raised $315 million in a Series E round, nearly doubling its valuation to $5.3 billion.
The Series E funding round was led by General Atlantic with participation from NVIDIA, Adobe Ventures, AllianceBernstein, AMD Ventures, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Mirae Asset, Emphatic Capital, Felicis and Premji Invest.
The new funding will be used to pre-train what it calls the next generation of “world models” and bring them into new products and industries.
In general, world models are AI systems designed to build internal representations of environments, allowing them to simulate and plan future scenarios. Many researchers see them as a key step beyond traditional large language models.
The company introduced its first world model in December and now considers the technology central to solving more complex problems, including use cases in medicine, climate research, energy systems, and robotics.
Funding followsthe release of Gen 4.5
The funding follows the release of Gen 4.5, Runway’s latest video-generation model. The system can produce high-definition videos from text prompts and includes features such as built-in audio, multi-shot long-form video creation, character consistency, and advanced editing tools.
The model has outperformed competing video-generation systems from Google and OpenAI across several benchmarks, likely strengthening investor interest.
From media to broader industries
Runway offers generative AI tools for creating images, videos, and simulations, enabling new creative workflows. The company first gained traction through its physics-aware AI video tools, which became popular in media, entertainment, and advertising.
It recently partnered with Adobe, further strengthening its position in the creative industries.
Rivals pursuing world models include Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs and Google DeepMind, both of which have recently made their own models publicly available.
Runway has also been expanding its computing capacity. The company recently signed an agreement with CoreWeave to increase access to high-performance infrastructure, a critical factor in training large-scale AI systems.
Runway currently employs around 140 people and plans to expand its research, engineering, and go-to-market teams with the new capital.
