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AI animation startup Cartwheel announced that it raised $10 million in a new round of funding, while releasing to the public its first AI-driven 3D character animation tools.
The new round of funding is led by Craft Ventures, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, Ben Feder’s Tirta Ventures and Runway, with participation from existing investors Accel, Khosla and Human Ventures. It bringing total funding for the company to $15.6 million.
The company was founded in 2023 with the aim of speeding up the animation process. The new toolset just emerged from a one-year closed beta test period, during which it was put through its paces by 8,000 individual artists employed by companies including Pixar and Dreamworks Animation, according to Cartwheel co-founders Jonathan Jarvis and Andrew Carr.
Carr, also Cartwheel’s chief scientist, is an OpenAI alum and CEO Jarvis was a foundering member of the Google Creative Lab. The team also includes a pair of Pixar alums, Cartwheel head of animation innovation Catherine Hicks and animation lead Neil Helm.
Jarvis and Carr said in a joint statement, “The new tools are developed to turn video, text and large motion libraries into production-ready 3D character animation, for uses include production of feature animation, games, as well as for social media. “We’ve developed a new way to simplify the animation process, putting creatives in the drivers’ seat as they dramatically accelerate their workflows, eliminate tedious tasks and save money, while enhancing control over their final products.”
Carr noted that for professionals, it can complement existing 3D animation software and is compatible with animation pipelines.
English (US) ·