Stealth AI Model Outperforms DALL-E and Midjourney, Secures $30M Funding
▼ Summary
– Recraft raised a $30 million Series B round led by Accel, with participation from Khosla Ventures and Madrona, after previously raising $12 million in Series A funding.
– The San Francisco-based startup has reached $5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and 4 million users, with its AI model “red_panda” outperforming competitors like OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney on a benchmark.
– Recraft specializes in generating brand-compliant images, such as logos and marketing materials, addressing a gap where other AI models often fall short.
– Founder and CEO Anna Veronika Dorogush, a former machine learning expert at Yandex, Google, and Microsoft, built Recraft with a focus on excelling in model development.
– Dorogush’s background as a professional model and mathematician influenced her approach to entrepreneurship, emphasizing strategic excellence over sheer effort.
Recraft, the AI startup behind a groundbreaking image generation model, has secured $30 million in Series B funding led by Accel, with participation from Khosla Ventures and Madrona. The San Francisco-based company, which previously raised $12 million in Series A funding, now boasts $5 million in annual recurring revenue and 4 million users, cementing its position as a rising star in the competitive AI landscape.
What sets Recraft apart is its proprietary model, internally dubbed “red_panda,” which outperformed industry giants like DALL-E and Midjourney on the Artificial Analysis benchmark last year. The name emerged organically after early testers repeatedly generated images of the adorable animal—a quirky nod to the model’s unexpected popularity. Unlike competitors that rely on existing frameworks, Recraft builds its AI models from scratch, focusing on precision and brand-specific applications.
Brands are flocking to Recraft for its ability to generate marketing materials—logos, brochures, posters—that adhere to strict branding guidelines without requiring extensive manual edits. This capability fills a gap left by other AI tools, positioning Recraft as a potential rival to design platforms like Canva, which also integrates AI for branding purposes.
Leading the charge is Anna Veronika Dorogush, Recraft’s founder and CEO, whose background blends machine learning expertise with an unconventional career path. Before diving into AI, Dorogush worked as a professional model while studying math and computer science at a top Russian university. That experience taught her a crucial lesson: hard work alone isn’t enough—excellence in mission-critical areas is what drives success.
Her philosophy now guides Recraft’s strategy. Instead of spreading resources thin, the company doubles down on model development, ensuring its AI delivers unmatched accuracy for commercial use. With fresh funding and rapid growth, Recraft is poised to reshape how businesses leverage AI for branding—proving that sometimes, the most disruptive innovations come from unexpected places.
(Source: TechCrunch)
