(Yicai) Dec. 18 -- Chinese generative artificial intelligence startup AISphere, whose AI video creation platform PixVerse boasts more than 12 million users worldwide, has secured nearly CNY300 million (USD41 million) in an A+ round of funding.

Participants included fintech giant Ant Group as well as venture capitalists Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, CAS Investment Management and Lighthouse Capital, the Beijing-based company said today.

The funds will be used to enhance research and development, boost computing resources and build talented teams so as to accelerate product iteration, expand market coverage, and promote the shared benefits of AI video generation technology, it said.

Released in January, PixVerse's impressive performance in text-to-animation and image-to-animation has garnered more than 12 million users worldwide and almost six million monthly active users so far. The latest version, launched in October, also has a video-to-video function that can extend or generate clips up to 30 seconds long using existing video and television footage.

"Chinese short video platforms have driven the development of the mobile Internet worldwide,” AISphere founder Wang Changhu said. “AI video models not only compete on parameters and data, but also on product value. We are confident that we can create the leading AI video generation technology and applications of this era to benefit users globally."

AISphere, which was founded in April 2023, also launched the Character2Video tool in March. This is a character consistency model that enables the character image in the video to be highly consistent with the background during video generation.

Editor: Kim Taylor