AI Inference Startup Fal Doubles Valuation to $16 Billion After $1.3 Billion Raise
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San Francisco-based Fal, which runs AI video, image, and audio models for developers, raised $1.3 billion in a Series F led by Bessemer Venture Partners and backed by Nvidia, doubling its valuation to $16 billion.
Fal, a San Francisco-based AI inference platform founded in 2021 by former Coinbase machine-learning lead Burkay Gur and ex-Amazon developer Gorkem Yurtseven, has closed a $1.3 billion Series F funding round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Nvidia, Sound Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. The raise doubles Fal's valuation from $8 billion, set during a Series E led by Sequoia in April, to $16 billion. Combined Series E and F funding now totals $1.65 billion. The company had already surpassed $800 million in annualised revenue at the time of the raise. Fal's platform specialises in inference — running already-trained AI models, primarily open-source video, image, and audio generators, on behalf of developers and companies. The round reflects surging demand for inference services, particularly from customers relying on open-source models. Competitors including Baseten, Fireworks AI, and Modal have also been growing rapidly and raising large rounds, though gross margins across the inference sector remain thin due to the high cost of buying or leasing compute, according to people familiar with inference companies' financials.
