Moonvalley, one of the most well-known AI companies working in Hollywood, has raised $84 million in new funding to build AI video tools for filmmakers and other creative professionals.
The round is led by a general catalyst of existing investors and includes strategic investments from Talent Giant CAA and Comcast Ventures in the vote of trust from Hollywood stubborns.
Cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave is also participating, and existing investors Khosla Ventures and Ycombinator are also participating. The new round brings Moonvalley's total funding to $154 million.
Moonvalley is one of a handful of companies trying to break into Hollywood by promoting its ethical AI model. This is because some other AI companies have been accused of stealing copyrighted jobs. Disney and Comcast Universal are suing the Mid Journey and denounce copyright infringement.
Moonvalley's pitch is that its AI model, Marey, is trained with licensed content and the content it creates. The company was founded by Deepmind veterans at Google and owns AI Film Studio Asteria Film Co. This was co-founded by filmmaker and actor Natasha Lyonne and filmmaker Bryn Mooser.
Naeem Talukdar, CEO and co-founder of Moonvalley, said the new funding will help Moonvalley build on Marey, an AI video tool. Marey has just been released to the public after being tested by filmmakers and studios, and is available on a subscription and license basis starting at $14.99 per month.
Talukdar said Marey has approved footage from sources such as independent filmmakers and YouTubers over the years, but believes it's only a fifth of what other AI video generators, like Openai's Sora and Google's VEO 3, have. I'm good at making people, but there are also gaps in certain areas, such as animation and certain types of sports footage. “I really don't know how basketball works,” he said.
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How Moonvalley works in the studio
In Hollywood, there is growing sensitivity in Hollywood about the possibility that AI will take on creative ideas and jobs. Few people have published their work with AI. The exception is Lions Gate, which signs a contract with Liveleway to train AI models in the library. AMC Networks has also announced plans to use Runway's tools to generate promotional material for the show. We continue to be skeptical of how AI models are trained.
Like many AI companies focused on Hollywood, Moonvalley says it works in big film studios, but doesn't name any of them. We do not share details about the source of licensed content. Talukdar said he believes he is transparent and plans to share that information at some point.
“We've probably worked with thousands of independent filmmakers, small studios,” he said. “So there are so many things we have to underline, but we actually finished Marey and published it, so we have it in our plan.
Talukdar said Moonvalley is working directly with the studio or through independent filmmakers who are doing projects for them.
In some cases, Asteria acts as a creative consultant, helping the studio use technology. For others, studios use Marey itself, from special effects to the production itself, usually everything from B-rolls and background footage. In one case, studios use Marey to fine-tune long-term television shows. “We have some pioneers looking to use it in real, important scenes of production,” he said.
He also said the biggest studio approached Moonvalley about creating their own models and supplemented their own libraries using Moonvalley licensed videos.
Moonvalley's view on AI opportunities
Talukdar acknowledged the fears of several creators about AI, but said he thinks fear calms down when people see that AI will not replace creative ideas or filmmaking.
“This idea that everyone just makes these films their own — I think that's absolutely nonsense,” he said. “AI never have a taste.”
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently walked into AI conversations and said that it not only represents an opportunity to “make the film 10% better” but it's not just cheaper. In addition to improving the film, Tarkudar said the studio is excited to be able to make more films that were previously not greenlighted due to budget constraints.
“The new results on the net are a.) the overall slate of productions that they should have done but have not achieved,” he said. “And b.) The existing productions are much better.”
