On February 28, 2024, Toronto-based AI startup Ideogram raised $80 million in Series A funding, led by American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, following an earlier $22.3 million CAD seed round. This funding round, which also saw participation from Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Pear VC, and SV Angel, will support Ideogram's accelerated growth and the development of more sophisticated generative media models. Martin Casado of Andreessen Horowitz has joined Ideogram’s board as a result.

Ideogram, known for its easy-to-use AI text-to-image generation platform, released its "1.0" update alongside a new subscription model. The update boasts a newly developed model, Ideogram 1.0, which improves photorealism, reduces text rendering errors, and enhances prompt adherence. The model can now understand complex prompts and even expand simple ones into more detailed requests.

Comparatively, the model has shown significant advancements over its predecessor, with an example image demonstrating enhanced 3D rendering and text clarity. Ideogram’s updated subscription options now include a basic tier at $7 USD per month for 400 uncompressed images daily, and a plus tier at $16 USD per month for unlimited generation.

The financing round was aimed at hiring additional staff across engineering, research, design, and operations departments, positioning Ideogram to further innovate within the AI-generated imagery space. Ideogram’s leadership, including CEO Mohammad Norouzi and co-founders, are recognized for their pioneering work on diffusion models, which has culminated in this consumer-grade, state-of-the-art platform.