Can the promises and reality of AI videos get closer than we realize? AI research firm Moonvalley believes that a new infusion of $84 million in funding will accelerate the development of free video shooting platforms out of legal and ethical concerns plaguing other AI video tools.
Naeem Talukdar, CEO and co-founder of Moonvalley, tells LBB that funding is making creators' AI dreams a reality and accelerating the company's ability to run on a large scale. “We're moving from proving that it's possible to provide what filmmakers actually need,” he says. Specifically, Moonvalley will leverage more diverse training data and expand its licensed content library to build API access, meaning Studios and Brands can integrate Moonvalley's fundamental AI model, Marey, directly into existing pipelines, to develop the more sophisticated control capabilities that our partners are requesting. Moonvalley also scales its engineering and support teams to handle enterprise deployments and build tools that “work reliably in production,” says Naeem.
Moonvalley's platform Marey is built on licensed content, and the team claims to create “production grade” videos. The new round has secured $84 million in funding, bringing the total Moon Valley funding to $154 million. The round is led by existing investors, general Catalyst, and includes support from Creative Artist Agency (CAA), CoreWeave and Comcast Ventures. Existing investors Khosla Ventures and Ycombinator also participated.
The salary increases reflect the growth of the industry's appetite for ethically sourced AI tools, particularly among companies seeking to maintain intellectual property rights. Moonvalley's approach focuses on training AI models using licensing data solely, rather than relying on scraped or unlicensed materials. Moonvalley has been billed to Marey, which was recently published. It is published as “the world's first production-grade AI-generated videography platform built for professional filmmakers and visionary brands.”
Naeem says this means two things for the filmmaker and the studio. Legal trust and professional management. “On the legitimate side, every frame Murray generates is clear for commercial use, as it was trained solely on licensed content,” he says. “There are no copyright concerns or surprise claims. Studios can use the output in commercial projects without the bottlenecks of theatrical release, broadcast campaigns, or legal reviews.”
In its official announcement of its funding agreement, Moonvalley claims that the AI video it produces will be “production grade.” This is an explanation that Naeem uses very intentionally. “Marey gives filmmakers the exact control they expect from professional tools,” says Naeem. “You can draw motion paths to control how objects move, camera movements like sets, transfer movements from reference footage, and adjust performance per frame.” These add naeems rather than ai gimmicks. “They are the controls that filmmakers use every day, translated into generative workflows. If the director wants to adjust the actor's representation or change the angle of the camera, they can do it directly, not a trial and error prompt.”
Training on licensed content “will fundamentally change both the creative process and the quality of output,” says Naeem. “First of all, all licensed content is native 1080p footage. There are no upscaled YouTube clips or compressed social media videos. This high-resolution training data means that Marey produces sharper frames with fewer artifacts and more stable motion across the clip.”
“More importantly, he adds: “We don't train scraped artworks, so Marey doesn't misreply any existing styles or visual signatures. The model responds purely in your creative direction, not to the patterns learned from other artists' works.
The technical challenge to achieving this was “important.” Moonvalley has less data than internet-cutting companies, and needed to build a better architecture to achieve comparable quality. “But the outcome is a legally clean and creatively neutral model, providing filmmakers with blank canvases rather than pre-painted canvases,” says Naeem.
Furthermore, Naeem believes that the approach of using only licensed content to train Moonvalley's model “already changed the conversation” about AI ethics and copyright. “Before Marey, companies had argued that they couldn't build competitive AI without rubbing content, and that proved it wrong,” he says. “Recent lawsuits from Disney and Universal against businesses using licensed training data show a place across the industry. Studios don't employ tools with legal uncertainty. Creators don't employ technology that leverages current standards. We simply need to establish specialized AI tools.
What excites Naeem the most is, in his opinion, how this approach allows for a true partnership with the creator. “When filmmakers know their work won't be cut down for training, they're willing to work together on building better tools. That collaboration makes Marey different. Moonvalley will work with Asteria, an in-house filmmaking division led by Bryn Mooser to coordinate tools for film use, quality, creative control and prioritization of commercially viable output.”
New investors in Moonvalley highlighted the alignment of Moonvalley's ethical approach and technical ambitions. “We're committed to providing a range of services to our customers,” said Allison Goldberg, Managing Partner at Comcast Ventures. “Moonvalley's approach to generative video shooting combined with technical excellence and respect for content creators coincides with how he thinks about innovation in the industry.”
Alexandra Shannon, the CAA's Strategic Development Director, reflects this sentiment. “AI's ethically led, talent-friendly applications are top priority for CAAs. These new tools and technologies offer opportunities, and a set of partners that are in line with the ethics behind AI is important,” she said. “Moonvalley understands that AI should empower artists rather than undermine artists, and is excited to lead this new technology to our clients and the entertainment community as a whole.”
Brannin McBee, Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer of CoreWeave, highlighted the infrastructure partnership behind Moonvalley's growth. “CoreWeave is proud to be able to support Moonvalley as demand for basic AI video models and tools accelerates,” he said. “Our relationship provides Moonvalley with access to sophisticated computing resources, including modern GPU systems. Our infrastructure will help Moonvalley scale commercially secure models to meet growing demand from studios and businesses seeking powerful, legally compliant AI video solutions.”
With Marey now accessible through MoonValley.com, the new Capital supports scaling efforts to meet enterprise demand. The company's roadmap includes expanding its licensed content library, developing API access for third-party developers, and enhancing studio and enterprise client capabilities. Moonvalley is expanding its engineering and support team to enable large-scale deployments.
“Our vision is to create generated videos that are essential for filmmaking, such as digital cameras and visual effects. It's a core tool to expand what's creatively and economically possible,” says Naeem. “From indie films to studio blockbusters, we see a future where every production uses AI to iterate faster, explore more options, and achieve otherwise impossible or very expensive shots.”
“The launch of Marey has proven its foundation solid. It's now focused on integration. It's getting tools into the real production pipeline via API access, plugins for editing software, and features that work in a way that filmmakers already work.
Adoptions aren't the only real measure of success for Naeem and the broader Moonvalley team, he adds. “Filmmakers stop thinking of AI as a different category and start seeing different cameras, different lenses, different ways of telling their stories.
“Based on the responses from the studio and the partnerships we're building, we're closer to that reality than most people notice.”
