The funding round brings Pika's total funding to $135 million. The company's team of 13 includes former Google, Meta, and Uber AI researchers, and its founders hold PhDs in AI from Stanford University. Pika's CEO, Demi Guo, expressed confidence in the company's ability to compete with better-funded organizations, citing its unique AI design that doesn't require the large budgets of bigger companies.
Key takeaways:
- AI video-generation start-up Pika has raised $80 million in a funding round that includes investments from Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greycroft, bringing its valuation to $470 million.
- Pika's tool allows users to create short AI-generated videos based on text prompts, and the company is competing with industry giants like OpenAI and Google in the AI video generation space.
- Total venture capital investment in AI and machine-learning companies was $25.9 billion in the first quarter of 2024, up from $21.7 billion a year earlier.
- Despite the technical challenges and high costs associated with AI video generation, it is considered the next frontier in AI, with both start-ups and Big Tech companies investing heavily in this area.