Cash-strapped Stability AI raises $80 mln with new CEO and board

June 25 (Reuters) - Stability AI said on Tuesday it has raised funds and appointed industry veteran Prem Akkaraju as its top boss, months after the exit of founder and CEO Emad Mostaque compounded troubles at the cash-strapped generative AI startup.The firm has raised about $80 million in funding, according to a person familiar with the matter, from a group of investors including Coatue Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.New CEO Akkaraju, former chief of visual effects company Weta Digital, has also invested in the company, which makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Google and OpenAI.Stability AI, which has also released AI models to generate audio and video using text prompts, named former Facebook President Sean Parker as executive board chairman of its board.Greycroft cofounder Dana Settle, General Partner of Coatue Management Colin Bryant and Akkaraju were also added to Stability AI's board.