Tripo AI, a 3D generative artificial intelligence (AI) company, has raised about 3 billion yuan ($446.4 million) in its Series B and B+ funding rounds led by China-focused venture capital (VC) firm MPCi.
San Francisco-based Tripo AI, a 3D-native foundation models and world models platform developed by Beijing-founded and now Hong Kong-headquartered VAST, secured this big-ticket financing from a diverse list of industry and financial investors.
They include Chinese game developers Perfect World, Yanqu Games, and 37 Interactive Entertainment, as well as the country’s strategic investors such as marketing agency BlueFocus Communication Group and software company ThunderSoft.
The Series B, B+ rounds also attracted multiple financial investors, including CDH Venture and Growth Capital, CICC, CMC Capital Partners, Hongtai Aplus, 3H Health, Zhongping Capital, and GreatOrigin Asia. Existing shareholders Fortune Capital, Primavera Capital, 4399 Network, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, INCE Capital, and T-Capital re-upped in the deals, according to a Tuesday statement.
The new financing brought Tripo AI’s fundraising total within the latest six months to approximately 5 billion yuan ($744 million), said the startup in a separate WeChat post in Chinese.
Tripo AI was founded in 2023 by a start-studded team of young scientists in AI and computer graphics. CEO Simon Song, a 1997-born Johns Hopkins graduate, helped build the now Hong Kong-listed AI foundation model company MiniMax after working on SenseTime’s AI gaming team. The founding team also includes Chief Scientist Yanpei Cao, who previously headed Tencent’s generative 3D department, and CTO Ding Liang, a Tsinghua University Ph.D. who previously led general vision and large language model (LLM) efforts at SenseTime.
The startup has developed an end-to-end product ecosystem built around its proprietary 3D-native foundation models and world models. Its key product offerings include Tripo Studio, which can turn text prompts and 2D images into detailed, production-ready 3D models within seconds or minutes; and enterprise-scale Tripo API that provides application programming interface (API), plugins, and custom integrations for game developers, digital content producers, and tech & entertainment industry clients.
The new financing came as Tripo AI announced a breakthrough in 3D-native foundation models with the preview release of Tripo P2.0, its latest 3D-native foundation model that enables the generation of high-quality and production-ready 3D objects in mere seconds.
Proceeds will allow the startup to speed up the development and advancement of its 3D-native foundation models and 3D data infrastructure, expand computing infrastructure for AI training and inference, and fuel product development and commercialisation.
The latest Series B, B+ rounds followed an aggressive fundraising run for VAST this year as global investor interest in AI reaches new heights.
The startup first secured a $50 million Series A round from Alibaba Group and Baidu Ventures in March. By June, it raised nearly $200 million in two extended Series A tranches led by INCE Capital and a China Life-backed tech fund, propelling its valuation past $1 billion. Just one month later in early July, VAST closed a 1-billion-yuan-plus (over $148.8 million) Series A3 round with participation from multiple investors, including Geely Capital.
