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Chinese AI model maker Stepfun raises hundreds of millions in Series B funding
Chinese generative artificial intelligence model maker Stepfun has reportedly closed on a bumper funding round worth “several hundred million dollars” from a host of investors including state-owned private equity firms and local technology giants.
The round was led by Fortera Capital, which is the private equity arm of the Shanghai state-owned group Capital Investment Co. It revealed the round on Wednesday via a post on the social media platform WeChat, and the story was picked up today by the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The exact funding amount was not disclosed.
Other backers in the round include the Chinese video games and social media giant Tencent Holdings Co. Ltd. and Qiming Venture Partners, which was an early backer of ByteDance Ltd., the parent company of TikTok, and also Xiaomi Corp.
Stepfun was founded in April 2023 by Jiang Daxin, who is the former chief scientist of the Microsoft Asia Research Institute. The Shanghai-based startup is an AI model maker, similar to U.S. companies like OpenAI or Anthropic PBC, and is one of several Chinese firms striving to match the innovation of those firms. Earlier this year, Stepfun announced the launch of its most advanced Step-1V multimodal large language model with more than 100 billion parameters, and is now testing its Step-2 model, which will reportedly exceed more than 1 trillion parameters.
In large language models, the number of parameters is a key metric as it highlights their ability to adapt to more complex data patterns and make more precise predictions.
The startup said it will use the funds from today’s round to build out its multimodal capabilities and focus on advancing its models’ advanced reasoning capabilities, while launching new consumer-focused products based on its foundational models.
Stepfun is just the latest Chinese model maker to rake in millions of dollars in funding. One week ago, a startup called Zhipu AI closed on a hefty 3 billion yuan ($411 million) funding round led by a number of state-backed investment vehicles, as well as Tencent, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., Qiming Ventures and Legend Capital.
The round raised Zhipu AI’s value to more than 20 billion yuan, Chinese media reported at the time.
Image: Stepfun
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