By Zanzhu
Chinese AI startup Evoken has secured nearly $300 million in a B+ funding round that values the company at more than $2 billion, becoming one of the latest unicorns to emerge from China’s fast-growing artificial intelligence sector.
This is the largest single financing round ever completed by a Chinese AI application company. It was led by Granite Asia, Tencent and Shunwei Capital. New investors included HT Investment and Time Capital, while existing backers such as Gaorong Capital, Ant Group, Vision Plus Capital, Future Capital, Source Code Capital and Sequoia China increased their holdings. Several investors have now backed the company through three consecutive financing rounds.
Founded in 2023 by former ByteDance executive Chen Mian, Evoken initially entered the market with an AI image-generation product. The company has since expanded into a broader suite of creative tools spanning image creation, design and video production.
The latest funding comes as the company reports explosive growth. As of May 2026, annual recurring revenue had reached $300 million, up nearly threefold since the beginning of the year and representing year-on-year growth of more than 3,000%.
The figures place the company among the fastest-growing businesses in the global AI creative applications sector, measured by fundraising, revenue growth, user reach, and product breadth.
From ByteDance executive to unicorn founder
Chen, born in 1992 and a graduate of Southeast University, held positions at several Chinese technology companies including Mobike, Didi and MissFresh before joining ByteDance. His final role before launching Evoken was head of commercialization for the teams behind video-editing apps Jianying and CapCut. He was reportedly one of the youngest executives in ByteDance’s history to reach the company’s senior “4-1” management rank.
Inspired by the wave of enthusiasm unleashed by ChatGPT, Chen left ByteDance in May 2023 to start Evoken.
The company initially focused on AI image generation but soon concluded that technology alone would not provide a lasting competitive advantage. Management repositioned the business as a creator community, combining model sharing, content showcases and social interaction to attract designers and content creators.
A key milestone came in early 2024 when Evoken enabled users to upload their own LoRA models — lightweight adaptations of large AI models — and charge others to use them. The move transformed the company from a standalone software tool into a broader creator ecosystem.
Building an AI content ecosystem
After three years of development, Evoken’s business now revolves around three core products: LiblibAI, LibTV, and Xingliu Agent.
LiblibAI has grown into one of China’s largest AI creator communities and content-resource platforms, with more than 30 million users. The platform hosts more than 500,000 original AI models and over 100 million professional image and video assets.
The company’s video-generation platform, LibTV, launched in March 2026 and has expanded rapidly. Within its first month, daily revenue exceeded $1 million. The platform serves nearly 1,000 customers, including short-drama production teams, film and television studios, advertising agencies and brand owners. Revenue in May was more than 13 times higher than in its launch month.
Xingliu Agent, a design-focused AI creation platform, has accumulated more than 10 million users.
The company’s rapid expansion has been matched by strong investor interest. Just two months after its founding, Evoken raised angel funding from Source Code Capital, Gaorong Ventures and GSR Ventures. It completed a pre-Series A round in early 2024 before securing a Series A financing in July that year.
Funding accelerated further in 2025. The company raised several hundred million yuan in February from investors led by Shunwei Capital and Vision Plus Capital, alongside a strategic investment from Giant Network. In October, it secured a $130 million Series B round led by Sequoia China, CMC Capital and a strategic investor, then the largest AI application financing in China that year.
Including the latest B+ round, Evoken has completed six funding rounds in just three years.
Beyond tools
The latest financing marks the first time the company has presented itself publicly under the group brand Evoken rather than its flagship product name, LiblibAI.
The move signals a shift from a single-product success story to a multi-business platform strategy. Rather than competing solely in individual software categories, the company is seeking to establish itself as a central player in AI-powered content creation.
Its products form an interconnected ecosystem. LiblibAI provides creator communities and model libraries; LibTV extends those capabilities into video production; and Xingliu targets professional design workflows. Together, they aim to cover the entire creative process, from idea generation to final content delivery.
The strategy reflects a broader industry trend as AI increasingly becomes core infrastructure for content creation. Evoken’s ambition is not simply to dominate a niche software segment, but to build a comprehensive AI content ecosystem.
For Chen, the journey from one of ByteDance’s youngest senior executives to the founder of a $2 billion unicorn has taken just three years. The next phase will depend on whether the company can maintain its momentum in video generation, AI design agents and international expansion as competition in the AI content industry intensifies.
Source:
Touzhong.com
