Pika is an AI video generation and editing company that lets users create and modify videos from text prompts, images, and existing footage. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company was previously known as Mellis Labs and was started by former Stanford AI PhD researchers who set out to make high-quality AI video creation broadly accessible.
The platform supports a range of visual styles, including 3D animation, anime, cartoon, and cinematic, and focuses on giving users creative control over video composition. Pika has released successive model and product versions that expand capabilities, including modular systems for combining custom characters, objects, and backgrounds with text prompts for more granular control, and models aimed at expressive, audio-synced facial animation.
Pika positions itself toward creators and consumers who want fast, flexible video generation rather than complex professional pipelines. Its emphasis on accessibility and creative control distinguishes it within a fast-moving generative video category that includes offerings from large AI labs.
The company raised an $80 million Series B in 2024 led by Spark Capital with participation from venture and notable individual investors, reportedly bringing total funding to roughly $135 million across rounds since its founding. This funding supported model development and rapid product iteration in a competitive market.
Pika competes with other generative video platforms and the video models of major AI labs. Its differentiation centers on accessibility, breadth of stylistic output, and features such as modular scene composition that give users more direct control over generated video.
The platform is best suited to content creators, marketers, and consumers who want fast, stylistically varied AI video generation and editing, rather than studios requiring frame-accurate professional production control.