AI inference startup Fal doubles its valuation to $16B as demand surges

Fal, a five-year-old AI inference startup, has doubled its valuation to $16 billion after raising $1.3 billion in its latest funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The startup, which hosts and runs AI video, image, and audio models, surpassed $800 million in annualized revenue earlier this year. Fal's growth is attributed to soaring demand for inference services, a process of running an AI model that's already been trained to generate outputs. The startup's co-founders, Burkay Gur and Gorkem Yurtseven, were previously at Coinbase and Amazon, respectively.