China VC Weekly: Digital Content, Metaverse and More

In last week’s VC news, digital interactive content development platform Cocos bagged $50 million from GGV Capital and others, Sequoia-backed SwooshTransfer added “millions of dollars” to its total fundraising pool, metaverse startup Xmov completed rounds B and C of financing raising $130 million, and more.

Sequoia-Backed SwooshTransfer Raises Millions in Latest Round

SwooshTransfer, which recently received an angel funding round of “several million dollars” from investors, including Sequoia China and K2VC has raised “millions of dollars” in latest financing, according to TechCrunch. The company did not reveal the exact amount.

About SwooshTransfer

SwooshTransfer was founded in 2021 by Ant Group alumni Max Ma to facilitate cross-border payments for small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individuals such as overseas students struggling with tuition fees.

Cocos Bags $50M Round-B Financing With Investment From GGV Capital

Cocos, a digital interactive content development platform, announced that it has completed a Series B round of financing totaling $50 million, with investors including GGV Capital, CCB Trust and Agora.

In the virtual digital human field, Cocos has realized five key technologies, such as modeling, customization of mouth shapes, dynamic capture, rendering and AI access, to help developers create realistic 3D characters. At the end of 2021, Beijing-based internet company Baidu released its metaverse product, “Xirang,” and Cocos has recently become a partner of Baidu, providing a technology platform base for the metaverse.

About Cocos

Founded in 2010, Cocos is a digital interactive content development platform. It has been deeply focusing on the underlying technology for many years and providing professional products and services. The Cocos Creator is an efficient and easy-to-use cross-platform interactive digital content development engine operated by the company. It is also an open source engine that can meet all-round creative needs.

Sequoia China Seed Fund Invests in Digital Character Technology Company Deemos

Deemos, a digital character technology company, has recently completed a pre-A round of financing, according to 36Kr. This round of funding was led by the Sequoia China Seed Fund and Miracle Plus. The funds are earmarked for expansion of the company’s team and R&D in its core technology.

Since 2021, Deemos has cooperated with several metaverse concept companies and provided different levels of facial assets for dozens of firms involved in the entertainment industry. Based on its expanding library and AI graphics algorithms, users will be able to generate their own 3D virtual image with only a few selfies, thus opening the technology to a broader user base. In addition, Deemos will expand its technology into more situations and hopes to achieve a greater market influence based on SaaS services.

About Deemos

Deemos’ founding team independently developed and built a Plenoptic Stage, a micron-scale face scanning system at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology. The system can dynamically scan facial materials with ultra-high precision and speed, and capture muscle movements when expressions change. Deemos’ automatic digital face generation system combines artificial intelligence, computational photography, graphics and other technologies into a seamless whole.

METiS Therapeutics Completes Two Financing Rounds Totaling $150M

METiS Therapeutics, a firm focused on the development of an AI-driven drug discovery and delivery platform, announced on Wednesday that it has completed two consecutive rounds of financing totaling $150 million.

These two rounds were led by PICC PE and China Life Private Equity, followed by Sequoia Capital China, 5Y Capital, CMB International, Lightspeed China, Monolith and FreesFund, while China Renaissance served as the exclusive financial consultant. Among them, Source Code Capital supported the firm with several rounds of financing, starting from its angel investment.

About METiS

METiS was hatched by XtalPi in the early stages, and devoted itself to promoting the development of an AI-driven drug discovery and delivery platform. Through independent research and development and active cooperation with others, METiS promoted many drugs to the clinical stage in the field of small molecule and nucleic acid therapeutics.

Open Source Company JiHu GitLab Secures Round-A Financing

Open source company JiHu GitLab announced that it had completed an A round of financing worth several hundred million yuan. This round of financing will be used for product research and team expansion, market development, open source ecological construction and independent intellectual property research.

This round of financing was carried out in two stages. The first stage was led by Temasek, followed by Alpha Prime, GGV Capital, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Fund and the Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) Fund. The second stage was led by Taikang Insurance Group, followed by Cheers Fund, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group. This round also saw previous shareholders such as Sequoia Broadband Cross-border Digital Industry Investment Partnership and Gaocheng Capital increase their investment in the company.

About JiHu GitLab

JiHu GitLab is a DevOps company jointly established by the US-based open source platform GitLab Inc. and funded with Chinese capital. The company set up its operations in March 2021 and was provided technology and branding by its US parent.

ZEEMR Wins A-Round Financing Led by CICC Capital

Smart home projector brand ZEEMR announced that it has recently completed A-round financing totaling around 100 million yuan ($15.7 million), led by CICC Capital. The firm’s valuation now exceeds 1 billion yuan after this round of financing. The new funds will be mainly used for product development and supply chain construction.

Focusing on the R&D of smart large-screen home appliance products, ZEEMR provides home projectors and will launch more innovative smart products integrating “hardware + operating system + ecology products + services,” so as to improve people’s quality of life through science and technology.

About ZEEMR

ZEEMR is operated by Jiangsu Jinshichuanqi Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in 2017. The brand is committed to providing more cost-effective giant screen solutions for Z-generation users, bringing about a home cinema experience.

Hamedata Technology Completes B-Round Financing

Hamedata Technology Co., Limited, a provider of household and outdoor energy storage technology, completed a round B of financing, with Qianhai FOF and ZY Capital serving as lead investors. 36Kr reported that the funds are to be used to improve the technical service capability of its products, and to expand its market layout in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Prior to this, Hamedata secured round-A financing from ZY Capital, Shenzhen Zhijie Capital Management Co., Ltd., and Gaoyun Capital.

About Hamedata

Founded in 2009, Hamedata is a professional ODM/OEM product and technology provider for household energy storage, outdoor energy storage and mobile energy storage products. Its core product is outdoor energy storage power supply, with a battery capacity ranging between 512Wh and 4096Wh, and an output power between 600W and 5000W. The battery cells are all produced by the company itself.

Chinese Metaverse Startup Xmov Attains $130M in New Funds

Chinese metaverse-focused startup Xmov announced that it has completed rounds B and C of financing, garnering a total amount of $130 million.

The B round of financing featured joint investment from Fresh Capital and Jinsha Fund. Sequoia China and 5Y Capital made additional contributions for three consecutive rounds. Meanwhile, the C round of financing, which totaled $110 million, was jointly led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and a well-known strategic investment institution, followed by Northern Light Venture Capital and Index Ventures. Index Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor.

Chai revealed that the freshly acquired funds will be mainly used for the R&D of products, market expansion, ecological construction, and further capitalization on the company’s leading advantages.

SEE ALSO: Chinese Metaverse Startup Xmov Attains $130M in New Funds

About Xmov

Founded in 2018, Xmov is a technology company with computer graphics and AI technology as its core. It is capable of full-stack end-to-end virtual content intelligent production, virtual human creation and operation technology, and has developed virtual live broadcast technology for both enterprises and consumers. It also builds 3D AI virtual human capability platform, creating a full-stack product ecosystem.

Chinese AI Firm Zhiyi Tech Raises Nearly $100M

Zhiyi Tech, an AI technology enterprise in the clothing industry, has continuously completed three rounds of financing totaling nearly $100 million, led by GL Ventures, Zoo Capital, Xianghe Capital and CE Innovation Capital, respectively. Its existing shareholders Legend Capital and Yonghua Capital followed up with additional investment.

The new funds are planned to be used for team building and products, and to continuously provide targeted supply chain solutions for clothing brands and livestreamers.

About Zhiyi Tech

Founded in 2018, Zhiyi Tech is a clothing-oriented flexible supply chain solutions provider featuring AI technology. Combined with the ability of digitalized trend forecasting, design selection and supply chain organization, the enterprise carries out standardized output AI-driven SaaS-based digital tools and one-stop clothing design supply chain services for clothing brands and e-commerce livestreaming hosts.