Ant Group invests in writing assistant start-up Mita as Chinese tech firms keep betting on AI

Ant Group has led a new round of investment in a low-profile Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up with a focus on search engines and writing assistance, marking the fintech giant’s latest move in this field.

Shanghai Mita Network Technology raised over 100 million yuan (US$13.9 million) in a new funding round led by Ant Group, an affiliate of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, according to a report published by local media Latepost on Thursday. That put the six-year-old AI company’s value at around US$150 million.

Chinese internet firm Cheetah Mobile, US venture capital firm Amino Capital and Beijing-based Future Capital were involved in Mita’s angel funding and pre-A round financing in 2018 and 2021, respectively, according to corporate database platform Qichacha.

Mita was founded in 2018 by Min Kerui, who graduated from Oxford University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Master’s degree in mathematics and a PhD in computer science.

China’s AI sector has scrambled to offer a local answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT since the US start-up triggered the generative AI boom in late 2022. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Based in Shanghai, Mita last year developed its own LLM – the technology underpinning generative AI services like ChatGPT – called MetaLLM large language model (LLM), and launched four main applications covering sectors including web search and writing assistance, according to the company’s website.

Launched earlier this year, its AI-powered search engine Metaso has accumulated 25.15 million visits year to date, and recorded 7.68 million visits in July, according to website analysis firm Similarweb.

Leveraging its self-developed LLM in the legal industry, Mita also offers law-focused AI translations, law case analysis, and writing assistance. Called Xiezuocat, the writing programme can reportedly come up with a 1,000 word article within one minute, according to the company’s website.

Ant Group, which operates payment app Alipay, has invested heavily in China’s AI sector, which has scrambled to offer a local answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT since the US start-up triggered the generative AI boom in late 2022.

Apart from Mita, the fintech giant has backed at least five other AI companies in China. It invested in two of the country’s four new “AI Tigers”, including Beijing-based Zhipu Ai and Shanghai-based MoonshotAI, as well as AI chip design firm Moffett AI.

Ant Group has also backed AI companies with a focus on text-to-video technologies, such as Beijing-based Alsphere and Shengshu Technology, both regarded as potential competitors to OpenAI’s Sora.

Apart from outside investments, Ant Group has been working on its own AI models and applications. The company launched Bailing, its own LLM last year with a focus on financial services, life services and healthcare.

In January, the group set up a new AI unit NextEvo with the goal of driving and coordinating the fintech powerhouse’s core AI efforts. New AI applications, such as an AI assistant for Alipay, have been tested since April.

Source link