South Korean startup Cinamon has secured an $8.5 million Series B funding round to further develop its innovative video generation platform, CINEV, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize the video production industry. The investment, led by Altos Venture and Saehan Venture Capital, brings the company's total capital raised to $18.5 million.

Cinamon's CINEV platform is designed to provide a comprehensive video generator that enables users to build 3D environments, direct scenes and actions, place characters, edit camera angles, and more, all using text prompts and sliders. According to CEO Doosun Hong, the company's approach fundamentally differs from existing AI video generators, which create videos by generating pixels using text, images, and videos as reference materials. Instead, CINEV combines a 3D asset library, AI motion generation, and a filmmaking-focused large language model to construct 3D scenes complete with characters and elements, and then allows users to edit them using its suite of video production and editing tools.

Hong emphasized that Cinamon's approach enables easier direction and editing without consistency or physics issues, making it particularly suitable for longer-form content like films and dramas. The company envisions CINEV as a complementary tool to existing AI video platforms, potentially enabling new workflows where CINEV's output could serve as high-quality reference material for other AI video platforms.

Cinamon's journey began in 2019 as Cinamon Games, a subsidiary of content production firm Vonvon. Initially, the company focused on creating interactive storytelling apps, but later shifted its focus to developing 3D animation tools that could speed up and scale animation production for content creators and studios. In 2022, Cinamon began building its 3D animation platform and later integrated AI features to enhance production efficiency.

The startup has already garnered significant attention from industry giants, including South Korean gaming company Krafton, Naver Z, and SNOW, which invested $10 million in Cinamon's Series A in 2022. Cinamon plans to leverage its investors' IPs and 3D assets to bolster its offering, including Krafton's substantial intellectual property and 3D assets used in its Battleground games, as well as Naver Z's Zepeto metaverse platform.

Cinamon's potential users include comic, manga, webtoon artists, web novel writers, game developers, video creators, and traditional animators looking for easier workflows. In 2025, the company plans to focus on customers ranging from individual creators to content IP companies seeking easier, faster, and cheaper ways to create anime, VTuber, and cinematic video game content.

The new capital will be used for hiring more AI engineers and research and development. Cinamon's team of 60 staff boasts expertise in 3D graphics, AI, gaming, and content production. With its innovative platform and significant funding, Cinamon is poised to revolutionize the video production industry and make a significant impact in the years to come.