Krea raises $83M to be the one-stop shop for genAI creatives

Summary

Overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the different models you can now use to build your content using AI? A startup called Krea that’s looking to solve this problem specifically for designers and other visual creatives has now raised $83 million for a platform it believes will make the task of working with generative AI a lot smoother. San Francisco-based Krea has built a “unified” platform that provides tooling from multiple models, along with a custom interface aimed at making queries and subsequent edits sent to those models significantly easier and more customisable to the user. Krea has quietly been building out a user base that includes creators at Perplexity AI, Loop Earplugs, Pixar, LEGO, and Samsung, and today it’s announcing that it has raised $83 million in funding. TechCrunch has learned from sources close to the deal Krea is currently valued at $500 million post-money. Krea’s funding is being announced for the first time today, and the $83 million total figure is actually coming in a few tranches: the latest, a Series B, totals $47 million; that was preceded by a preseed/seed and Series A respectively of $3 million and $33 million. Bain Capital Ventures is leading the latest round. Other major investors in the startup include Andreessen Horowitz and Abstract Ventures. From creatives to AI creators Krea is the brainchild of Victor Perez (CEO) and Diego Rodriguez (CTO), kindred spirits who met a decade back when they were still students in Barcelona, Spain. Both consider themselves creatives and creators — specifically, Perez in music playing and production, and Rodriguez in art — but they have equally always been interested in technical subjects. “I liked physics and maths and problems that challenged my mind,” Perez recalled of his student days. The degree that introduced them to each other was engineering for audio visual systems, with Perez taking an interest on the audio side; Rodriguez on the visual. They quickly became friends, and Perez credits...