What Fable Studio does

Fable Studio, Inc. (doing business as Fable) is a San Francisco-based private company developing AI-powered video and simulation software for interactive entertainment. The company was founded in 2017 and operates with 11-50 employees from its headquarters at 2169 Folsom St, Studio 100, in San Francisco. Its core product, Showrunner (hosted at showrunner.xyz), is an AI-powered video platform built around the company's proprietary 'Agent-Powered Simulations' architecture, which it positions as the next generation beyond 1:1 chatbot interactions. The platform combines multimodal generative video with agent-based storytelling to enable interactive virtual beings that can engage users in narrative experiences.

Historically, Fable gained prominence through virtual reality projects including 'Wolves in the Walls', developed with author Neil Gaiman, and in 2019 became the first company to win a Primetime Emmy Award for a Virtual Being — an industry-first credential that anchored its brand in the emerging virtual beings category. The company has since transitioned from VR production toward its current AI Showrunner focus, with stated applications in interactive entertainment, AI-powered storytelling, and entertainment content creation.

Fable's business model and pricing are not publicly disclosed; its investor base is strategic rather than purely financial, including the Amazon Alexa Fund (which led a 2025 round), I2BF Global Ventures, SDVentures (the venture arm of Social Discovery Group), GFR Fund, AAFM, LionTree, 7percent Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Manta Ray Ventures, and Outpost Capital. The customer segmentation is horizontal within Entertainment and Media, and go-to-market relies heavily on earned media coverage in tier-1 publications (Newsweek, Forbes, Bloomberg, NY Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter). The company has experienced a significant leadership event with the passing of co-founder Pete Billington in October 2025, leaving Edward Saatchi as the remaining principal founder.

Name

Fable Studio

Legal name

Fable Studio, Inc.

Website

https://fable-studio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fable Studio (Fable Inc.) is a San Francisco-based AI company building Showrunner, an AI-powered video platform that uses agent-powered simulations to create interactive virtual beings and entertainment experiences for the media and entertainment industry.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Video Generation Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Software Publishers (51321)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Tools & Production (Overlays, Alerts, Encoding, Editing, Audio) (MPAFAEAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Virtual Influencers, VTubers & Avatar/Face-Tracking (Gaming Creators) (MPAFAEAK), Virtual Production Production Management & Collaboration Tools (MPAHADAK)

Keywords

• AI video generation
• Virtual beings platform
• Agent-powered simulations
• Interactive storytelling software
• AI entertainment technology

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Fable Studio develops and operates Showrunner, an AI-powered video platform that uses agent-powered simulations to enable interactive storytelling and virtual beings. The platform moves beyond traditional 1:1 chatbot interactions, allowing creators, entertainment companies, and media organizations to produce AI-generated video narratives with virtual characters that can engage users in dynamic, multi-step experiences.

Product overview

Fable Studio, Inc. is an AI-powered video and simulation platform company based in San Francisco. Their primary product is Showrunner, which enables interactive video experiences through agent-powered AI simulations. The company was notably recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award for virtual beings technology. Fable Studio has transitioned from earlier VR projects (including Wolves in the Walls, developed with Neil Gaiman) toward a focus on AI showrunner technology for video generation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Showrunner: AI-powered platform for creating virtual beings and simulations, as indicated by showrunner.xyz reference.

Products and services

• Showrunner

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Inworld AI: Inworld AI develops a platform for creating AI characters with personality, memory, and multi-modal interaction for games and entertainment. It overlaps with Fable's interactive virtual beings focus, particularly for narrative and gaming applications.
• Synthesia: Synthesia provides AI-generated avatar videos for enterprise and entertainment applications. It is a direct competitor in the AI-powered virtual being and synthetic video generation space, with stronger enterprise GTM.
• HeyGen: HeyGen offers an AI video generation platform with avatar-based content creation tools. It overlaps with Fable's Showrunner in AI-driven video content production for marketing and entertainment use cases.
• Pika Labs: Pika Labs develops an AI video generation platform enabling text-to-video creation and editing. It competes directly with Fable Showrunner for AI-driven video content creators and entertainment use cases.
• Runway: Runway is a leading AI video generation platform offering generative video tools for creators and studios. It directly competes with Fable's Showrunner in the AI-powered video creation category, with overlapping customer segments in entertainment and media.
• Soul Machines: Soul Machines creates autonomously animated, AI-powered digital humans for customer engagement and entertainment. It directly competes with Fable in the virtual beings and interactive AI character category.
• D-ID: D-ID specializes in AI-powered digital humans and talking avatar video generation. It competes with Fable in the virtual beings and AI-driven character animation category, targeting enterprise and creative customers.

Broad incumbents

• NVIDIA (Omniverse / Avatar Cloud Engine): NVIDIA provides AI infrastructure, foundation models, and avatar/character animation tools (ACE, Omniverse) that broadly underpin the virtual beings ecosystem. As an infrastructure incumbent, NVIDIA is a key enabling technology provider and potential competitor for enterprise deployments of Fable's Showrunner platform.

Emerging players

• Character.ai: Character.ai enables users to create and interact with AI characters with distinct personalities. It is an emerging player in interactive AI characters, overlapping with Fable's virtual beings focus but with a consumer chatbot-oriented experience.
• UneeQ: UneeQ creates AI-powered digital humans for customer service and brand engagement. It is an emerging player in the virtual beings space with partial overlap to Fable's interactive AI character focus, primarily enterprise-focused.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fable-studio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fable Studio