Runway
The New York AI video startup founded at NYU in 2018 — from Gen-2 text-to-video and a $1.5B Google/Nvidia-backed round to a $5.3B "world model" company with $200M in ARR, a robotics push, and its own $10M venture fund.
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- Location
- New York City, New York, United States
- Country
- United States
- Founded
- 2018, by Cristóbal Valenzuela, Alejandro Matamala and Anastasis Germanidis
- Business
- Generative AI models for video, images, and multimedia content
- Funding
- About $860 million raised; $5.3 billion valuation as of February 2026
- Revenue
- $200 million in annual recurring revenue as of September 2026
Overview
Runway AI, Inc. — known as Runway or RunwayML — is a New York-based company building generative AI models for video, images, and multimedia content (Bloomberg). It was founded in 2018 by Cristóbal Valenzuela, Alejandro Matamala and Anastasis Germanidis, who met while at art school at NYU and shared a curiosity about AI’s creative potential; they began building AI tools for moviemakers, cinematographers and photographers (TechCrunch). Runway helped create the original text-to-image model Stable Diffusion and went on to release the Gen-1 and Gen-2 video generation models (Bloomberg). This profile is about Runway AI, Inc. — not the similarly named venture-debt lender Runway Growth Finance.
The $1.5 billion breakout
In June 2023, Runway raised a $141 million extension to its Series C from Google, Nvidia and Salesforce (via Salesforce Ventures), valuing the company at $1.5 billion — triple its December 2022 valuation — and bringing total funding to about $237 million (Reuters). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said generative AI was “breathing new life into stories and ideas that were not imaginable” (Reuters). A year later, Runway debuted Gen-3 Alpha, which generates 10-second videos from text prompts with improved motion depiction and frame consistency — and, notably, a provenance system based on the C2PA standard that embeds metadata marking outputs as AI-generated (SiliconANGLE).
From creative tool to world-model company — and investor
By 2026 Runway had outgrown the “AI video tool” framing. In February it raised $315 million at a $5.3 billion valuation, and by September its annual recurring revenue had doubled since April to $200 million (PYMNTS). The Paris-based Kinetix research team — specialists in 3D human motion and physically grounded video generation — joined Runway to push its world models into robotics: “The next step is teaching them how to take actions in the world,” co-founder and co-CEO Anastasis Germanidis said (PYMNTS).
Then Runway started investing like the giants it once courted. In March 2026 it launched a $10 million venture fund for pre-seed and seed AI, media, and world-simulation startups — writing checks up to $500,000 — alongside a Builders program offering startups API credits and access to its real-time video-agent API (TechCrunch). Having raised close to $860 million itself, Runway seeded the fund with its existing investors and partners; co-founder Alejandro Matamala-Ortiz framed it as ecosystem-building around “video intelligence” the 150-person company couldn’t pursue alone (TechCrunch).
What this profile does not claim
This profile covers Runway AI, Inc. (runwayml.com) only — it is not Runway Growth Finance, the venture-debt lender traded as RWAY, and no claim here applies to that company. The “95% of the Fortune 100” usage figure is a co-founder’s stated claim, not an independently verified fact. Model capability descriptions (physics understanding, generation speed, output quality) are reported as company claims via the cited outlets. Funding rounds after February 2026 were not verified at the research date.
Timeline
- 2018
- Cristóbal Valenzuela founds Runway with fellow NYU art-school researchers Alejandro Matamala and Anastasis Germanidis, building AI-powered tools for filmmakers and photographers.
- 2022
- Runway helps create the original text-to-image model Stable Diffusion and releases its Gen-1 and Gen-2 video generation models.
- 2023
- Runway raises a $141 million Series C extension from Google, Nvidia and Salesforce at a $1.5 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $237 million.
- 2024
- Runway debuts Gen-3 Alpha, which generates 10-second videos from text prompts, with C2PA provenance metadata marking outputs as AI-generated.
- 2026
- Runway raises $315 million at a $5.3 billion valuation; ARR doubles to $200 million; the Kinetix research team joins to push world models into robotics; and Runway launches a $10 million venture fund for AI startups.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The "95% of the Fortune 100" usage claim comes from a co-founder's LinkedIn post via PYMNTS and is attributed, not independently verified.
- Model capability claims (physics accuracy, generation speed) are stated as the company's claims via the reporting outlets, not as independently tested facts.
- This profile covers Runway AI, Inc. (runwayml.com) only; it is not the venture-debt lender Runway Growth Finance (ticker RWAY).
Sources
6 sources (2 tier 1, 4 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built entirely from independent sources fetched and read in full: Reuters and Bloomberg (tier1); TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, and PYMNTS (tier2). No first-party material was used. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited.
- Supports: $141M Series C extension, $1.5B valuation, Google/Nvidia/Salesforce Ventures investors Open original source
- Supports: Founding 2018, New York base, Gen-2 product, Stable Diffusion co-creation, $237M total raised Open original source
- Supports: Founders meeting at NYU art school, founding 2018, Runway Studios, AI Film Festival, enterprise customer base Open original source
- Supports: Gen-3 Alpha 10-second text-to-video, C2PA provenance system, world-models roadmap, OpenAI Sora/Luma competition Open original source
- Supports: $10M venture fund, Builders program, ~$860M raised, $5.3B valuation, world-models strategy, co-founder titles Open original source
- Supports: $200M ARR (doubled since April), Kinetix team joining for robotics, $315M Series E February 2026 Open original source
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