Luma AI, the California tech start-up, has launched its first international office in London.
The company, which bills its as a “frontier artificial intelligence company building multimodal AGI intelligence” and known for generative video and imaging product Dream Machine, is opening the office as a reaction to decentralization of creative economies across the EMEA region.
Luma AI plans to work with global creators in the advertising, brands and entertainment spaces to build AI into their culture and workflows.
Former Monks exec Jason Day has been hired to lead international business development, strategic partnerships, and customer expansion outside the U.S. The immediate plan is to create 200 roles in London across research, engineering, partnerships, and strategic development, with “significantly” larger number added across the UK, Europe and Saudi Arabia by 2028.
The news comes soon after Luma raised $900M in Series C funding, which it plans to use to fund a “supercluster” facility in Saudi Arabia being developed under the title Project Halo. The round was led by Humain, which is part of the portfolio of the Saudi Private Investment Fund.
Besides tech and marketing giant Monks, Day has also held senior roles at WPP, and is considered by Luma’s management to have a strong background in operations, P&L management and talent acquisition.
“Jason brings a rare combination of commercial strategy, international growth experience, and deep understanding of the creative space,” said Caroline Ingeborn, COO of Luma AI. “His leadership across Monks and WPP – especially scaling large cross-border teams and building client relationships in markets like London. Munich and Riyadh makes him the ideal leader to drive our next chapter. With Jason leading from London, Luma AI can bring creative intelligence directly into the hands of marketers and storytellers around the world.”
Day added: “Luma AI is the world leader in developing multimodal artificial generative intelligence (AGI) for the creative industry. Putting that intelligence into the hands of creative professionals around the world – be they marketers, gamers, or film studios – will transform the entire creative process.
“The regions we are expanding into are actively building new creative economies, with a need for technology that accelerates production without compromising quality. The potential for creative intelligence is still largely untapped, and this is the moment to scale it across industries and geographies.”
The news also comes after Luma AI released Ray3, which the company claims is the first video model with the ability to reason. Monks was among the first customers for the product. The generative model is capable of critiquing itself and making on-screen notes about revisions and improvements. Production work can also be saved and picked up where it was stopped, unlike many current models.
Luma’s backers include Humain, Andreessen Horowitz, AWS, AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, Amplify Partners, Matrix Partners and angels from across the technology and entertainment spaces. The company launched an L.A. office earlier this year.
