Black Forest Labs
Black Forest Labs is a frontier AI research lab that develops generative AI models for visual understanding, including Stable Diffusion and Stable Video Diffusion. The company has raised $450M in funding and employs 129 people.
The growth story
Black Forest Labs grew from 1 to 129 employees between 2024 and 2026, raising $450M along the way, most recently a Series B in December 2025.
About
Black Forest Labs builds AI models that generate visual content, used by both individual creators and enterprise applications. Its models, including Stable Diffusion and Stable Video Diffusion, are widely adopted benchmarks in generative AI.
The company, founded in 2024, has rapidly scaled to 129 employees and secured $450M in Series B funding. Its models power millions of creations globally, though specific user or revenue metrics are not disclosed.
Founders and leadership
Engineering is the largest function at Black Forest Labs, with 14 employees. The company is led by a team with backgrounds in AI research and development, though specific leadership details are not provided.
The Black Forest Labs org chart
Dustin Podell (Founder/Researcher) leads 16 mapped leaders with 4 direct reports. Click +N to expand a team; names link to the person’s public profile.
Departments, and which ones grew
Headcount by function: Engineering 37 (+236% YoY), Entrepreneurship 21 (+40% YoY), Business Development 10 (+67% YoY), Human Resources 5 (+150% YoY), Arts and Design 5 (0% YoY), Operations 5 (+150% YoY).
Talent flow
Black Forest Labs recruits heavily from Stability AI, Google, and AWS, with 14, 7, and 6 hires respectively. Alumni have moved to roles at Atlas Venture Partners, Helsing, and Cognition, among others.
Most common previous employers of Black Forest Labs staff: Stability AI (14), Google (7), Amazon Web Services (AWS) (6), Microsoft (5), Meta (5), NVIDIA (4). Former Black Forest Labs employees most often moved to Atlas Venture Partners (1), Callosum (1), HSG (1), Helsing (1), Cognition (1), IMTEK, University of Freiburg (1).
Hiring now
What this company is made of
Most common skills at Black Forest Labs: Python (Programming Language) (35), Project Management (29), Leadership (28), Artificial Intelligence (AI) (25), Communication (25), Microsoft Office (23), Management (23), Teamwork (23).
Where the team actually sits
Black Forest Labs people are concentrated in California, United States (18), Baden-Württemberg, Germany (10), Berlin, Germany (7), San Francisco Bay Area (7).
Search footprint
Black Forest Labs attracts about 538 organic search visits a month, traffic worth roughly $2K a month if bought through ads. It gained 242 ranking keywords and lost 225 in the last period.
Frequently asked
Black Forest Labs has 129 employees as of September 2026.
Black Forest Labs has raised $450M in total, most recently a Series B round in December 2025.
Black Forest Labs was founded in 2024 by Dustin Podell, Axel Sauer, Sumith Kulal, Tim Dockhorn.
Dustin Podell (Founder/Researcher) sits at the top of Black Forest Labs's reporting structure, with 4 direct reports.
The most common previous employers of current Black Forest Labs staff are Stability AI (14 people), Google (7 people), Amazon Web Services (AWS) (6 people).
Former Black Forest Labs employees most often move to Atlas Venture Partners (1), Callosum (1), HSG (1).
Black Forest Labs attracts about 538 organic search visits a month, worth roughly $2K a month in equivalent ad spend.
The most common skills among Black Forest Labs staff are Python (Programming Language), Project Management, Leadership, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Communication.
Black Forest Labs staff are concentrated in California, United States (18), Baden-Württemberg, Germany (10), Berlin, Germany (7).
Black Forest Labs has about 37 people in Engineering, up 236% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Black Forest Labs has about 21 people in Entrepreneurship, up 40% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Computed from 93 current and 9 former Black Forest Labs profiles, as of September 2026. Source: Crustdata.
Build this for any company
Every number on this page came from the Crustdata API. Point the MCP at a company and get the same org chart, alumni list and talent flow in one prompt.