Runway
About
About Runway
Runway develops generative video and world models, alongside tools used to create and edit visual media. Its robotics programme applies that video-model foundation to robot control, simulated evaluation and training-data augmentation. The Runway Robotics platform offers policy-model adaptation, video-model licensing and photorealistic rollout evaluation, with access arranged around the customer's robot hardware and tasks.
Praxis-1 is its generalist robot-policy programme, combining large-scale video pretraining with robot-specific fine-tuning. Early testing includes hardware from Noble Machines, Standard Bots and Ultra, spanning stationary arms and mobile robots. Runway is working with selected partners ahead of a planned public release of Praxis-1 weights. Its world-model evaluation tools simulate policy rollouts from action sequences and camera observations, allowing developers to investigate failures before running the same experiments on physical machines.
Products
Observed use
- Praxis-1 with Ultra mobile base
Evaluation - Tested With - Ultra tested Praxis-1 on its physical robot hardware during Runway’s pre-launch partner programme.
Source - Praxis-1 with RO1
Evaluation - Tested With - Standard Bots tested Praxis-1 on its physical robot hardware during Runway’s pre-launch partner programme.
Source - Praxis-1 with Noble Machines partner robot
Evaluation - Tested With - Noble Machines tested Praxis-1 on its physical robot hardware during Runway’s pre-launch partner programme.
Source
Funding
- 2026-02-10 - Series E - $315M - Runway secures $315 million for world-model development in Series E
Runway raised a $315 million Series E led by General Atlantic to develop its next generation of world models. - source: runway.com
- 2025-04-03 - Series D - Runway finances Studios expansion with General Atlantic-led Series D
Runway secured more than $300 million in Series D funding led by General Atlantic. - source: generalatlantic.com
- 2023-06-29 - Series C extension - $141M - Runway brings Google, NVIDIA and Salesforce into 2023 financing extension
Runway secured a $141 million extension to its Series C for multimodal AI research and creative products. - source: runway.com
- 2022-12-05 - Series C - $50M - Runway gains Felicis-led financing for collaborative content creation
Runway raised a $50 million Series C led by Felicis for its AI-powered content-creation software. - source: madrona.com
- 2021-12-15 - Series B - $35M - Runway adds Coatue-led capital for video tools in 2021
Runway raised a $35 million Series B led by Coatue for its machine-learning video tools. - source: runway.com
- 2020-12-16 - Series A - $8.5M - Runway raises $8.5 million Series A
Runway raised an $8.5 million Series A led by Amplify Partners to expand its machine-learning creative tools. - source: runway.com
Investors
- Amplify Partners - Lead - VC - 3 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2020-12-16 - latest 2022-12-05
- Lux Capital - Participant - VC - 3 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2020-12-16 - latest 2022-12-05
- NVIDIA - Participant - Unknown - 3 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2023-06-29 - latest 2026-02-10
- Coatue - Lead - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2021-12-15 - latest 2022-12-05
- Compound - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2021-12-15 - latest 2022-12-05
- Felicis - Lead - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2022-12-05 - latest 2026-02-10
- Fidelity Management & Research Company - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2025-04-03 - latest 2026-02-10
- General Atlantic - Lead - Private Equity - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2025-04-03 - latest 2026-02-10
- Adobe Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- AllianceBernstein - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- AMD Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- Baillie Gifford - Participant - Investment Firm - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-04-03
- Compound Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2020-12-16
- Emphatic Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- Google - Participant - Corporate / CVC - 1 funding event - strategic/corporate - first seen 2023-06-29
- Madrona - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-12-05
- Mirae Asset - Participant - Investment Firm - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- Premji Invest - Participant - Investment Firm - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-10
- Salesforce Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-06-29
- SoftBank - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-04-03
Team
- Cristóbal Valenzuela - Co-Founder and Co-CEO - Co-founded Runway in 2018 and shares CEO responsibilities with Anastasis Germanidis.
- Anastasis Germanidis - Co-Founder and Co-CEO - Led Runway’s research programme and became co-CEO in February 2026.
Research
- Runway introduces Praxis-1 world action model for real robots
2026-09-30 - Research Publication - Noble Machines, Standard Bots and Ultra are testing the model on their hardware, including the Standard Bots RO1 arm. The model learns robot actions from large-scale video pretraining combined with robot interaction data. Public weights are planned in the coming months, following the pre-launch partner programme.
Source
Timeline
Events
- 2026-09-30 - Research Publication - Runway introduces Praxis-1 world action model for real robots
Noble Machines, Standard Bots and Ultra are testing the model on their hardware, including the Standard Bots RO1 arm. The model learns robot actions from large-scale video pretraining combined with robot interaction data. Public weights are planned in the coming months, following the pre-launch partner programme.
Source - 2026-02-26 - Org Change - Runway appoints Anastasis Germanidis co-CEO
Kamil Sindi became chief technology officer and Michelle Kwon became chief operating officer. Anna Chalon became chief people officer and Jamie Umpherson became chief creative officer. Germanidis had led the company’s research; Runway described the co-CEO appointment as formalising its existing leadership structure.
Source - 2026-02-10 - Funding - Runway secures $315 million for world-model development in Series E
Participants included NVIDIA, Adobe Ventures, AllianceBernstein, AMD Ventures and Fidelity Management & Research Company. Mirae Asset, Emphatic Capital, Felicis and Premji Invest also joined the financing. The capital supports pretraining and new products and industries for Runway’s world models.
Source - 2025-04-03 - Funding - Runway finances Studios expansion with General Atlantic-led Series D
Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, NVIDIA and SoftBank participated alongside other new and existing investors. Proceeds supported media-generation research and expansion of Runway Studios, its AI film and animation studio. The recently introduced Gen-4 models focused on maintaining consistent characters, locations and objects across scenes.
Source - 2023-06-29 - Funding - Runway brings Google, NVIDIA and Salesforce into 2023 financing extension
Google, NVIDIA and Salesforce Ventures participated alongside existing investors. Runway planned to expand in-house multimodal research and hire across research, engineering and product. The announcement followed the 2023 launches of Gen-1 and Gen-2; Runway said its AI Magic Tools served Fortune 500 and Global 2000 businesses.
Source - 2022-12-05 - Funding - Runway gains Felicis-led financing for collaborative content creation
Madrona joined existing investors Amplify Partners, Coatue, Compound and Lux Capital. Runway combined collaborative editing, asset-management integrations and multimodal content generation in one creative suite. Its AI-assisted rotoscoping let editors select a subject and define a mask instead of tracing every frame manually.
Source - 2021-12-15 - Funding - Runway adds Coatue-led capital for video tools in 2021
Existing investors Amplify Partners, Lux Capital and Compound participated alongside the new lead investor. Coatue’s David Cahn and Caryn Marooney brought experience in product-led growth and video-market distribution. Runway was developing browser-based video-editing tools that use machine learning to automate manual production work.
Source - 2020-12-16 - Funding - Runway raises $8.5 million Series A
Lux Capital and Compound Ventures also participated, represented by Zavain Dar and Michael Dempsey. Runway planned to expand the team building its machine-learning media-production tools. The company originated at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and credited early advisors Dan Shiffman and Gene Kogan.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Ultra
Partner - Runway is working with Ultra as an early Praxis-1 partner testing the world action model on physical robot hardware.