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AI video creation platform Hedra raised $10 million in seed funding, persevering with the demand for AI-focused investments and the curiosity in generative AI-powered creation merchandise.
Hedra, based by former Nvidia, Google, and Meta workers, has traders together with Index Ventures, Summary and A16Z Speedrun.
As a part of its seed spherical, Hedra additionally launched its video-focused basis mannequin Character-1 out of stealth. The corporate mentioned Character-1, which it previewed to researchers in June, is “the quickest video basis mannequin available on the market.
“Till now, creators confronted tradeoffs for management and velocity through generative video fashions,” the corporate mentioned. “[In June], Character-1, our analysis preview, confirmed that that is not the case. The velocity and ease of use are designed to turbocharge the effectivity of content material creators and entrepreneurs.”
Hedra mentioned greater than 350,000 customers have used the Character-1 platform and created over 1.6 million movies. The corporate mentioned most of the movies made with Character-1 have gone viral on Reddit and Instagram. Hedra emphasised that it permits customers to create AI popstars and AI-generated content material. It additionally desires to proceed bettering its security and content material moderation options.
The corporate plans to concentrate on making its platform extra multimodal so it could “combine story, sound and video technology into one unified workflow.” Hedra hopes to streamline content material creation to permit for the customization of digital avatars and characters utilizing AI.
Hedra’s Character-1 is the newest video technology mannequin to be launched to the general public in current months. Haiper 1.5, which got here out of stealth in March, mentioned it might problem OpenAI’s Sora. RunwayML, one of many pioneers of AI-generated movies, publicly launched its Gen-3 Alpha mannequin in July, whereas Luma AI introduced its real looking video platform Dream Machine in June.
One other video platform, Captions, raised $60 million in Sequence C funding in July.
Bigger corporations like OpenAI and Google are additionally within the combine on the subject of gen AI-powered video creation. OpenAI’s Sora has not but been launched to the general public, however the firm has labored with manufacturers and filmmakers to showcase the platform. Google introduced Veo in Could.