Australian startup Leonardo.Ai has successfully raised AU$47 million in funding from investors including Blackbird, Side Stage Ventures, Smash Capital, TIRTA Ventures, Gaorong Capital, and Samsung Next, to propel the development of its Generative AI (GenAI) content production platform.
Launched last year, Leonardo.Ai has rapidly grown, amassing 7 million users globally in under a year. Users create 4.5 million images daily, totalling over 700 million images. The platform is now the third most popular Discord channel with almost 2 million members.
Leonardo.Ai’s GenAI platform claims to redefine ideation and conceptualisation, enabling the creation of diverse content from gaming characters to architectural designs. It allows users to build ecosystems of hyper-realistic art, promoting the reuse of concepts for sustained creative output.
Chief executive officer JJ Fiasson expressed the platform’s mission to democratise creativity, making it accessible to novices and accelerating productivity for professionals. Fiasson said, “From our initial uptake, it’s clear that creators see the power of our platform to support the creative process.”
The startup lists catering to industries such as entertainment, fashion design, advertising, and architecture, collaborating with AAA gaming studios and Razer Axon.
In addition to the funding, Leonardo.Ai is launching its primary Enterprise offering, providing collaborative tools and private cloud infrastructure. Enterprise users gain access to production APIs, facilitating infrastructure development on the platform. Key hires include Donna Thomas as chief of staff and Ellie Miller as chief people officer.
Investors have expressed confidence in Leonardo.Ai’s trajectory. Niki Scevak, partner at Blackbird, asserted, “Compounded over a decade, Leonardo.Ai will transform how industries go about their working lives.”
Ben Grabiner of Side Stage Ventures described Leonardo.Ai as “a new type of AI-powered paintbrush that empowers and accelerates a new generation of creative talent.”
Evan Richter, co-founder of Smash Capital, mentioned seeing a “golden age” for human creativity facilitated by Leonardo.Ai. Ben Feder, managing partner of TIRTA Ventures, further spoke confidently of the platform’s execution in transforming creative workflows.
See also: What consumers are expecting of brands using generative AI