Alibaba leads US$60 million investment in AI video generation start-up AIsphere
AIsphere’s PixVerse has over 100 million users globally, more than double the number it had at the start of the year
The Beijing-based start-up behind the popular artificial intelligence video generator PixVerse has raised US$60 million in a funding round led by Alibaba Group Holding, the largest single amount raised by a domestic AI video generation firm, according to an announcement on Wednesday.
Other participants in the funding round included Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm Antler and the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund. A valuation was not disclosed.
The deal comes as China’s Big Tech firms are looking at niche AI start-ups to complement their own offerings and final products.
Founded in April 2023 by former Microsoft and ByteDance executive Wang Changhu, AIsphere’s video creation product allows users to easily generate videos from text prompts, images and other video clips.
The new funds would support R&D and continued global expansion, the start-up said.
PixVerse now had over 100 million users globally, the announcement said, more than double the number at the start of the year. Its “Venom effect” video template went viral on TikTok late last year.