As metaverse recedes from the hottest discussions in 2021, the financing rounds seem to be one of the largest for a metaverse-related company so far this year
Chinese metaverse infrastructure firm Xmov (Chinese: 魔珐科技) has raised USD 130 million in its Series B and Series C financing rounds, the company said on Wednesday.
The Shanghai-based company bagged USD 110 million in the Series C financing round. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and an undisclosed top strategic investor led the funding, followed by Northern Light Venture Capital (Chinese: 北极光创投) and Index Ventures.
Fresh Capital (Chinese: 清新资本) and Jinsha Capital (Chinese: 锦沙资本) jointly invested in the Series B financing round, with Sequoia China and 5Y Capital investing for three consecutive rounds.
The fund will primarily be used for product R&D, industry-wide multi-scene market expansion, and supply chain construction.
This appears to be one of the largest publicly disclosed funding rounds for a metaverse-related AI company so far in 2022. Axera (Chinese: 智砹芯半导体), an AI chip start-up, raised a CNY 800 million (USD 125.640 million) Series C round in January.
“The essence of the metaverse is to upgrade the information carrier and interaction mode with 3D virtual content and virtual human. Xmov aims to provide infrastructure for this endeavor , empowering all industries to enter the metaverse era,” said Chai Jinxiang, founder and CEO of the company.
Established in 2018, Xmov is a company based on computer graphics and AI technology. The firm boasts full-stack end-to-end intelligent virtual content production, avatar building and operation, and virtual live streaming technologies.
Xmov served over 200 enterprises, covering various industries such as entertainment, consumption, e-commerce, and finance. Customers include Alibaba, Tencent, CCTV, and L’Oreal.
Metaverse-related companies have attracted overwhelming attention since 2021, but investors remain wary, most of which offer smaller funds. In March, metaverse entrants AI Rudder (Chinese: 赛舵智能) announced its USD 50 million Series B financing round and Oasis VR (Chinese: 唯二网络) closed its CNY 128.092 million Series B financing round.