Pika Labs Raises $55M and Launches New AI Video Platform to Compete with Runway

Pika Labs, a six-month-old video AI startup, has recently announced that it has raised $35 million in a series A round of funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. This, combined with earlier side rounds, brings the total funding raised by the company to $55 million. Alongside this funding announcement, Pika Labs has also unveiled its new web platform, Pika 1.0, which builds upon its earlier beta release. This platform allows users to generate and edit videos in various styles, such as 3D animation, anime, or cinematic, simply from text prompts. The introduction of Pika 1.0 marks a significant development in the AI-driven video-generation game. Pika Labs now finds itself in direct competition with other players in the market, such as Runway and Stability AI. Even Adobe has shown interest in this area, experimenting with tools that can generate and edit objects in videos. Pika Labs claims that its product, which is already being used by over half a million people, is open for sign-ups and will gradually be made available to users. The company aims to empower everyone to become a creative video director and producer. The founders of Pika Labs, Demi Guo and Chenlin Meng, were former Ph.D. students in Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab. They initially launched Pika on the messaging app Discord in late 2023. Since then, the product has evolved into a sophisticated tool, generating millions of videos each week. The company reports that its top users on Discord spend up to 10 hours a day creating videos using Pika. In conclusion, Pika Labs' recent funding round and the launch of its new AI video platform, Pika 1.0, demonstrate the company's ambition to compete in the AI-driven video-generation market. With its user-friendly interface and diverse video styles, Pika Labs aims to empower individuals to create professional-quality videos effortlessly.