Fal, a San Francisco company that runs AI models for software developers, has raised $1.3 billion from investors. The deal values the business at $16 billion, double its $8 billion value in April. Bessemer Venture Partners led the deal, which closed in October, with Nvidia, T. Rowe Price and other investors taking part.
The company specialises in inference: running AI models after they have been trained to produce results. Its services cover video, images and audio. Demand has grown rapidly as customers turn to these tools.
Earlier this year, Fal passed an annualised revenue rate of $800 million. This means that its sales pace at that point would produce more than $800 million over a full year. Chief executive Burkay Gur said demand became so strong during the summer that Fal could not fully serve its customers and had to limit their use.
Fal plans to spend the new money on additional computing power and expanding its 185-person team. These plans follow a period in which customer demand exceeded what the company could provide. The business has also begun working with the companies behind video models to adapt those models for particular uses.
