San Francisco-based startup Luma has successfully raised $43 million in a Series B funding round to further develop its artificial intelligence (AI) technology for crafting 3D models. The investment was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from both existing and new backers. Luma aims to utilize the funding to expand its team, enhance its AI models, and scale up its infrastructure.
Founded by Alex Yu and Amit Jain, Luma initially launched a smartphone app in 2021, enabling users to capture objects in 3D using their smartphones without additional equipment. The app gained significant traction, amassing over two million users. However, the company now seeks to evolve into a more extensive and advanced platform for AI-driven 3D model generation.
Luma’s strategic plan involves leveraging a compute cluster of around 3,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs to train new AI models that can “see and understand, show and explain, and eventually interact with the world,” according to Alex Yu. The first phase of this initiative includes developing models capable of generating 3D objects from text descriptions. Luma had previously launched a model named Genie that accomplishes this task.
The company aims to address the “uncanny valley” problem in current generative AI models by creating next-generation AI models with enhanced capabilities. The focus is on improving fidelity, particularly in generating coherent and usable outputs in 3D spaces, bodies, and movements.
While the 3D model generation space is becoming increasingly competitive, with various startups and established players entering the market, Luma aims to set itself apart through improved fidelity and advanced generative photorealistic technologies. The company plans to double its workforce by the end of the next year and expand its server cluster infrastructure to accommodate thousands of GPUs.
Luma believes that its technology has the potential to revolutionize the creation of 3D objects at scale using AI. The current version of Genie is already in use by 100,000 users within four weeks of its launch. With the new funding, Luma is determined to build more capable, intelligent, and useful visual models for its users.
