Video generation startup PixVerse raises $439M, valuation tops $2B

PixVerse, a Singapore-based video generation startup, announced today the close of its Series C extension, raising a total of $439 million in the round. According to the company, this new funding brings its valuation to over $2 billion. The capital will be used to expand its world model offerings and reach customers globally.

PixVerse initially closed its Series C round in March, led by CDH Investments. Although the funding amount was not disclosed, Bloomberg reported it at around $300 million. Investors in the extension round include Alibaba, Lollapalooza Capital, Ivy Capital, Grand Mount Capital, Eastern Bell Capital, Mirae Asset, BlueFocus, and CloudAlpha, along with returning investors iGlobe Partners and OCBC’s LionX Ventures.

The company was founded in 2023 by Wang Changhu and Jaden Xie. Wang previously worked on computer vision at ByteDance, while Xie served as an executive director at investment firm Lighthouse Capital.

PixVerse offers several models: a V-Series video model for consumer and API use, a C-Series video model for professional film and commercial workflows, and an R-Series of world models for game development and world building, which launched earlier this year.

With its tool, users can generate videos up to 4K resolution with embedded audio. The startup reports that its consumer product has over 150 million registered users and more than 15 million monthly active users. The company declined to disclose the number of paying users but offers a competitive rate of $4.80 per minute for image-to-video generation.

Xie believes that while the opportunity for video generation is huge, only a few companies are making real progress.

He told TechCrunch, “OpenAI exited the business when they shut down Sora 2. Other companies like Meta and Tencent are not able to create high-quality video models. So there are only a few companies that can meet the quality bar.”

He added that both consumer and enterprise markets offer equal opportunities: users create videos for fun and consume AI-generated short-form content, while enterprises use video generation for creative, learning, and marketing purposes.

However, claiming that the startup’s model delivers “high-quality” output is hardly unique. Xie noted that its core strength lies in labeling.

Xie said, “We think the key difference is not in data, but how you label it, because data is available everywhere. My co-founder worked at ByteDance, where he built core visual understanding technology behind TikTok using AI. Using this tech, TikTok was able to label data accurately, and build a strong recommendation algorithm. This experience comes in handy when building a video generation platform.”

The company has ambitious plans for this year. It aims to expand its enterprise outreach globally. The startup already has a deal with its investor Alibaba to deploy video generation features.

On the product front, it plans to launch a new V-series model for video generation and release a new version of its world model this year. The company has 150 employees across offices in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai. With the new funding, PixVerse intends to hire more researchers and go-to-market personnel.

Despite its confidence in its own models and products, the video market is becoming increasingly competitive. Players include ByteDance with its Seedance model, Dr. Wei Liu’s Video Rebirth (former Tencent AI head), and Kling AI from Asia. In the West, competitors like Midjourney, Runway, and Luma are active. Multiple companies, including startups by Lann YeCunn and Fei Fei Li, are also building world models.