🔎 Spotlight #19: Inside Moonvalley
A new creative engine for Hollywood’s next chapter.
The founding story: rebuilding Hollywood’s creative pipeline
Moonvalley was founded by Naeem Talukdar and John Thomas, two builders coming at the film world from entirely different angles but with the same frustration.
Together, they joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch with a clear vision: build AI infrastructure that supports filmmakers, animators, and creative studios as they develop scenes, worlds, characters, and storylines. Not replacing creativity, but accelerating it.
They describe their mission as building “the foundational model for Hollywood”. Given how slow, manual, and expensive early production still is, that mission makes sense.
What Moonvalley actually does
Moonvalley is an AI-powered creation platform designed specifically for film, TV, gaming, and animation teams. It helps creators instantly generate:
Characters
Worlds
Environments
Storyboards
Previsualizations
Scene drafts
Instead of waiting weeks for concept art or early storyboards, creators can explore dozens of directions in minutes.
The goal is not just to generate visuals. It is to support the full pre-production process and become the creative engine studios rely on long before a camera starts rolling.
Film teams describe it as “Figma for storytelling” and “Midjourney built for Hollywood”.
Funding and team at a glance
💰 Raised $84M in June by General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures
💪 Backed by Y Combinator (W24)
🎥 Building the next-gen creative OS for Hollywood
📍 Based in Toronto and Los Angeles
🖥️ Website: www.moonvalley.com
The competitive landscape and how Moonvalley stands apart
Moonvalley operates in one of the busiest areas in AI right now: AI video and creative generation. There are a lot of players, but very few are actually built for Hollywood.
On the general AI side, tools like Midjourney, Runway, Stability AI, and OpenAI’s Sora dominate the conversation. Sora especially went viral because of how realistic its demo clips were, spawning a wave of memes and people joking that it could replace entire film crews. These tools are great for creative exploration, but they are not built for the strict continuity and structure film studios need.
Then there are the more specialized tools like Wonder Dynamics, Fable Studios, and Flawless AI. They focus on specific tasks such as character animation or video dubbing. Strong tools, but each one only solves a slice of the workflow.
Moonvalley’s edge is its focus on a full pipeline. They want to be the place where creators build scenes, maintain character consistency, iterate on worlds, and keep everything cohesive through the entire pre-production process. It is not trying to create quick clips for social media. It is trying to become the foundation for how visual storytelling gets planned and developed.
The first Moonvalley-powered films are coming soon
Moonvalley is not just a cool demo anymore. According to a recent report from ITBrief, the first films using Moonvalley’s technology are expected to release within the next year, which is a massive signal that studios are moving from testing to real production.
This is a big milestone for any creative tooling company, especially one tackling something as complex as previsualization and AI-assisted filmmaking. Getting a studio to rely on your tech is one thing. Getting that tech into an actual film release is another level entirely.
The early feedback from studios has been promising. Directors are using Moonvalley to quickly explore shots, revise scenes on the fly, and ideate on worlds that would normally take weeks to visualize. It is helping teams move faster, stay aligned creatively, and reduce the cost of iteration.
If they deliver on this next phase, Moonvalley will not just be building a tool. They will be shaping a new workflow for how films get made. And once studios experience a workflow that is faster and cheaper without sacrificing quality, it is very hard to go back.
My take
Moonvalley feels like one of those companies that will either quietly become a giant or suddenly explode into the mainstream. The problem they are solving is real. Hollywood runs on slow, expensive, outdated workflows, and even simple creative iterations take days or weeks. Anyone who has spoken to people in film or animation knows how painful that pipeline can be.
What I like most is that they are not trying to replace creatives. They are building tools that expand what creative teams can do. Faster previsualization, more accurate worldbuilding, and consistent characters across scenes can save studios weeks of effort and give directors more room to experiment. That is a real multiplier.
The YC pedigree is impressive, but what matters more is that the team is clearly shipping fast and listening to real studios. If they keep pace, Moonvalley could end up being one of the most important creative tools built in Canada. This is one of the few AI companies that actually feels like it has a deep understanding of its users and the pain they experience.
🧭 Moonvalley Roles
These are some pretty cool roles at Moonvalley in the moment. Although not much, I encourage you to keep in tune with future LaunchPad job posts to see any new exciting roles that pop up at Moonvalley and many other cool firms!
That’s a wrap on Spotlight #19
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope these spotlights help you discover companies worth your time, and make the job hunt feel just a little bit less overwhelming. Keep an eye out for next Tuesday’s LaunchPad job drop, and if you know someone looking to break into tech or level up, feel free to share this with them too.
Here’s to building something cool, or better yet, joining something cool. 🚀
