AI inference startup Fal doubles its value to $16B in a $1.3B round

Fal, which hosts image, video and audio AI models for developers, raised $1.3B led by Bessemer at a $16B valuation, double its April value. Nvidia and T. Rowe Price also invested. Fal plans to spend the money on more computing power and staff.

Fal, a startup that runs image, video and audio AI models for developers, has raised $1.3B at a $16B valuation, Bloomberg reported . That is double the $8B it was valued at in April.

Existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, which closed in October. Nvidia, T. Rowe Price, Sound Ventures and HOF Capital also took part.

Fal runs a type of work known as inference, which means running AI models after they have been trained. Demand for it is booming: Fal hit $800M in annualised revenue earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“ We hit a point in summer where we were not able to serve our customers and had to rate limit them, ” said chief executive Burkay Gur.

The San Francisco company will spend the money on more computing power and on growing its 185-person team. It has also started fine-tuning video models with the companies that make them, sometimes in return for licensing fees or a share of revenue.

“ The more scale you have, the more likely you are to win at the end of the day, ” Gur said.

Investors are betting big on the rest of the field, too. Rival Modal raised $750M at a $15.75B valuation in October. Fireworks raised $1.5B at a $17.5B valuation in July, and Baseten is reportedly set to more than double its value to $30B.