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Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, the influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm that was an early investor in Facebook, Lyft, and other tech giants, has invested in Civitai, a giant platform for sharing AI models that enables and profits from the creation of AI generated nonconsensual sexual images of real people. That includes launching a feature where people can list “bounties” for others to create AI models of specific targets.
Civitai said that it raised $5.1 million in a seed funding round led by a16z.
A16z’s official website, which includes a jobs board with open positions at companies in its portfolio, currently lists five jobs at Civitai. According to a16z’s site, these jobs were posted more than 30 days ago.
A16z regularly announces investments the company is making on its site, but has not publicly announced its investment in Civitai yet.
A16z did not respond to a request for comment. When asked about a16z’s investment in Civitai over Discord, a community engagement manager at Civitai told 404 Media that “There will be a press release/announcement shortly.” Civitai then published a press release confirming the investment minutes after 404 Media reached out for comment.