Kuaishou's Kling AI unit closes S$4.3b funding round with new investors

Tencent-backed Kuaishou Technology announced on Friday that its unit Beijing Kling has completed a fundraising round of about 19.8 billion yuan (S$4.3 billion). The short-video platform operator will retain two-thirds of the equity and 52.45 per cent of voting rights in the AI video-generation firm.

Tencent-backed Kuaishou Technology said on Friday that its unit Beijing Kling has completed a fundraising round of about 19.8 billion yuan (S$4.3 billion). The short-video platform operator will hold two-thirds of the equity and 52.45 per cent of voting rights in the Kling AI maker through its Lucky Labs holding vehicle.

The fundraise comes after a S$4.1 billion raise in July, which drew investors like Alibaba and Tencent, when Kling was valued at US$15 billion pre-money. Kuaishou did not reveal how Kling would use the proceeds from the latest round.

Among new investors in the latest round: a unit of Hong Kong-listed Kingdee International invested 300 million yuan, Gongqingcheng Junke put in 200 million yuan and a unit of Shanghai-listed MetaX added 100 million yuan. They partially took over other investors' commitments and received redemption rights.

Kling competes with AI video generation models from OpenAI, Google and TikTok owner ByteDance. Kling is planning for an initial public offering next year, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month, citing people familiar with the matter.