What Black Forest Labs does
Black Forest Labs describes itself as a frontier AI lab building generative AI models, and it created the FLUX image generation models.[1] The company says its founding team includes pioneers of Latent Diffusion, Stable Diffusion and FLUX.1.[1] On July 23, 2026, Black Forest Labs released FLUX 3 in Early Access, a multimodal foundation model that learns from images, videos and audio in one architecture.[2] According to the company, FLUX 3 generates clips of up to 20 seconds with native audio in a single generation.[3] Black Forest Labs has labs in Freiburg and San Francisco, and CEO Robin Rombach described it as a 90-person frontier AI lab in June 2026.[1],[4]
Business model and customers
Black Forest Labs offers its models through an API and as downloadable open weights that customers can customize and deploy.[3] The company said in December 2025 that partners including Adobe, Canva, Meta and Microsoft are building on its models.[5] TechCrunch reported in December 2025 that Black Forest Labs' models are used by Adobe, fal.ai, Picsart, ElevenLabs, VSCO and Vercel.[6]
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Key Metrics
Recent changes
- Dec 1, 2025Dec 1, 2025Raised $300M Series B at a $3.25B valuation Black Forest Labs
- Dec 1, 2025Dec 1, 2025First reported valuation: $3.25B Black Forest Labs
- Dec 1, 2025Dec 1, 2025New investor: Salesforce Ventures Black Forest Labs
Funding History
1 event · sources dated per row| Date | Event | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2025 | Series B | $300M | $3.25B | Salesforce VenturesLeadunverifiedAnjney Midha | Black Forest Labs |
How Black Forest Labs has been funded
On August 1, 2024, Black Forest Labs announced a $31 million Series Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.[7] Angel investors in the seed included Brendan Iribe, Michael Ovitz, Garry Tan, Timo Aila and Vladlen Koltun, and General Catalyst and MätchVC made follow-up investments.[7] On December 1, 2025, Black Forest Labs announced a $300 million Series B at a $3.25 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP).[5] Existing investors a16z, NVIDIA, Northzone, Creandum, Earlybird VC, BroadLight Capital and General Catalyst joined the Series B, alongside Temasek, Bain Capital Ventures, Air Street Capital, Visionaries Club, Canva and Figma Ventures.[5] Black Forest Labs said the Series B will accelerate its research and development.[5]
Investors and their roles
- Andreessen Horowitz (led the $31M seed, Aug 2024; joined the Series B, Dec 2025)[7],[5]
- Salesforce Ventures (co-led the $300M Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Anjney Midha (AMP) (co-led the $300M Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- General Catalyst (follow-up investment in 2024; joined the Series B, Dec 2025)[7],[5]
- NVIDIA (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Northzone (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Creandum (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Earlybird VC (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- BroadLight Capital (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Temasek (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Bain Capital Ventures (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Air Street Capital (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Visionaries Club (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Canva (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- Figma Ventures (Series B, Dec 2025)[5]
- MätchVC (follow-up investment, Aug 2024)[7]
Investors
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- Jul 23, 2026Black Forest Labs Launches FLUX 3, a Multimodal Media ModelBlack Forest Labs released FLUX 3, a multimodal model that generates images and 20-second videos with native audio and can predict robot actions from the same set of weights, in limited early-access release.→
- Jul 23, 2026Runway Launches AI Model Router as Generative Media CrowdsRunway launched Media Router, a preference-optimized routing layer built into its Runway Dev platform that automatically selects the best AI model for image, video or audio requests based on quality, speed or cost.→
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- Jul 13, 2026Hermes Agent Maker Nous Research in Talks at $1.5BNous Research, maker of the open-weight Hermes agent models, is in talks for new funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, a meaningful mark for the open side of the AI stack.→
Coverage Timeline
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Black Forest Labs FAQ
How much has Black Forest Labs raised?
Value Add VC tracks $331 million across two announced rounds for Black Forest Labs: a $31 million seed in August 2024 and a $300 million Series B in December 2025.[7],[5]
What is Black Forest Labs' valuation?
Black Forest Labs raised its December 2025 Series B at a $3.25 billion post-money valuation, according to the company.[5]
Who invested in Black Forest Labs?
Andreessen Horowitz led Black Forest Labs' $31 million seed in 2024, and Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP) co-led its $300 million Series B in December 2025.[7],[5]
Who founded Black Forest Labs?
Black Forest Labs was co-founded by Robin Rombach, Patrick Esser and Andreas Blattmann, former researchers who helped create Stability AI's Stable Diffusion models, reported by TechCrunch.[6]
Who is the CEO of Black Forest Labs?
Robin Rombach is co-founder and CEO of Black Forest Labs, as he stated in a June 2026 speech published by the company.[4]
References
researched 2026-10-19Sources & methodologyshow
Where these figures come from
- Black Forest Labsprimary source2 facts
Figures are labelled Reported (a source states it), Estimated, Derived (computed from other facts) or Rumored (in talks / unconfirmed). Rumors never replace a confirmed figure. Each figure keeps its own as-of date; history is preserved rather than overwritten.