London-based graphic design generator Recraft has raised $12m (£10m) to fund an R&D drive that includes developing its own generative AI foundation model.
Launched eight months ago, Recraft is capitalising on the rapid advances in generative AI technology, which lets users create assets like images or video from text prompts.
Recraft has created AI tools used by over 300,000 designers to generate assets like vector images and illustrations that match a company’s brand guidelines.
The company said it will use the influx of capital for R&D, including the creation of its own foundation model so it doesn’t have to rely on open source platforms like Stable Diffusion.
The Series A funding round was led by Khosla Ventures and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
Additional funds were provided by RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, Elad Gil and other angel investors.
“I truly believe that AI has the ability to reshape design and influence the way that we look at the world,” said Anna Veronika Dorogush, founder and CEO of Recraft.
“Recraft was created to meet the requirements of professional design, generating consistent style images and high-quality vector illustrations suitable for everything from advertising and digital marketing assets to iconography.”
Recraft said its own foundation model will improve the quality of AI-generated images on its platform as it can fine-tune the model to meet its own requirements.
“We are seeing rapid and significant transformation of the design space driven by generative AI,” said Nikita Shamgunov, partner at Khosla Ventures.
“But to date, many of the generative AI design solutions have been targeting consumers, rather than professionals that require high degrees of control. Recraft delivers on professional workflows such as vector images, style controls and end-to-end content production, all powered by in-house built foundation models.”
Last year generative AI took the world by storm following the launch of Open AI’s advanced chatbot ChatGPT.
In the UK, AI companies raised $4.5bn in funding last year, according to data from HSBC Innovation Banking and Dealroom.
While this marked a 29% year-over-year increase, it was climate tech that came out on top at $6.2bn.