Face-wall Intelligence Secures a New Round of Financing Worth Hundreds of Millions of Yuan | Intelligent Surge Headlines
Text | Su Jianxun
The article is first published on the Intelligent Emergence public account.
Intelligent Emergence has learned that Mianbi Intelligence has completed a new round of hundreds of millions of yuan in financing. This round of financing is jointly led by Loongson Venture Capital, CDH BaiFu, Zhongguancun Science City Fund, and SAIF Partners. The Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Tsing Ventures follow the investment, and Wanjia Capital serves as the exclusive financial advisor for this round.
After the completion of this round of financing, Mianbi Intelligence will further accelerate the commercial layout of efficient large models represented by end-side AI to deeply serve the industry with efficient large models of the same parameters, higher performance, lower energy consumption, and faster speed.
Mianbi Intelligence is a large model company with "efficiency as the first principle". The end-side model Mianbi Xiaogangpao MiniCPM has achieved innovations such as an efficient sparse model architecture and infinitely long text with the performance advantages of achieving more with less and high efficiency and low cost.
Data from a third-party professional institution shows that MiniCPM has taken the lead in many large model benchmark tests. Since its release in February this year, the cumulative download of the Mianbi Xiaogangpao MiniCPM series has exceeded 3 million, topping the large model trend lists of GitHub and HuggingFace many times, becoming a star project in the globally renowned open source community.
In the past year, based on the commercial layout and business promotion of efficient large models and end-side AI, Mianbi Intelligence has made relatively rapid progress in industry implementation.
In terms of end-side intelligence, Mianbi Intelligence is integrating end-side AI into mainstream consumer electronics and emerging hardware while laying out the future paradigm of end-cloud collaboration. It has reached strategic cooperation with Huawei Cloud and Baidu Intelligent Cloud. With the end-side model of higher knowledge density, higher computing power and memory utilization, and more efficient model algorithms and hardware scheduling, the three forces work together to break through the key obstacles in the combination of the computing power layer and the model layer.
Currently, Mianbi Intelligence is closely collaborating with industry benchmark enterprises such as Huawei, MediaTek, Lenovo, Intel, Great Wall Motors, and Yeelight Technology. Its business covers fields such as AI Phone, AIPC, intelligent cockpits, smart homes, and embodied robots, bringing high-performance end-side AI to thousands of industries.
In vertical fields such as law and education, thanks to the deep accumulation of technical origins in natural language processing and high-quality industry data, the Mianbi team empowers the industry scenarios with large model technology in depth.
In July 2024, Mianbi Intelligence, People's Court Publishing House, and Shenzhen Dibao jointly assisted the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court to officially launch the country's first large model in the vertical field of judicial trials. The application scope has covered all common civil and commercial cases and administrative cases.
In November, the Faxin Legal Base Large Model, in which Mianbi Intelligence participated as a joint research and development team, was released by the Supreme People's Court. The Faxin Legal Base Large Model is positioned as a national-level legal artificial intelligence infrastructure - by providing the underlying capabilities of generative artificial intelligence for the Chinese legal field to improve judicial efficiency in the digital era.
Mianbi's uniqueness lies in its consistent insistence on the scientific nature of large models. As one of the few international teams that have explored its own "efficient methodology of large models", Mianbi Intelligence continuously iterates the real utility of the model by pursuing higher knowledge density (Knowledge Density = Model Capability / Model Parameters Involved in Computation) beyond the Scaling Law, leading the terminal intelligence to a higher level.
Loongson Venture Capital said: "In the global AI competition landscape, Mianbi Intelligence has shown remarkable innovative vitality. The company's layout in end-side large models and intelligent agent technology is both forward-looking and of great commercial value. Especially the breakthrough progress of the MiniCPM series on terminal devices has created a new paradigm for the popularization of AI. Mianbi Intelligence is proving with practical actions that Chinese enterprises are fully capable of occupying an important position in the global AI competition."
CDH BaiFu said: "The empowerment of large models for industrial upgrading has become an irreversible trend. Mianbi Intelligence's in-depth cultivation in the field of end-side large models has opened up a new path for the universal application of AI technology. The company's breakthroughs in high-performance miniaturized models, intelligent agent technology, etc., have demonstrated outstanding technical innovation strength. Especially its layout on terminal devices such as automobiles and mobile phones will bring revolutionary changes to the industry. We are honored to be able to participate in the development journey of Mianbi Intelligence and help it accelerate the industrialization process of AI technology."
Zhongguancun Science City Fund said: "Under the background of the vigorous development of the current large model technology, Mianbi Intelligence has created a highly distinctive development path with its unique advantages in end-side deployment and intelligent agent technology. The company not only continues to make breakthroughs in technology but also pays more attention to the deep integration of industry, academia, and research to create an open and win-win innovation ecosystem. This open and collaborative development concept has enabled Mianbi Intelligence to establish a strong technical barrier and commercial value in a short period of time. Investing in Mianbi Intelligence is also another important layout of Haidian District in the improvement of the large model ecosystem and industrial chain. We believe that Mianbi Intelligence will surely become an important force leading China's AI technology innovation."
Jiang Chihua, Partner of SAIF Partners, said: "The large model technology is ushering in a critical window period for large-scale commercial application. Since its establishment in 2022, Mianbi Intelligence has quickly established an industry-leading position with its outstanding innovative strength in end-side large models and intelligent agent technology. The company not only continues to make breakthroughs in technology research and development but also shows excellent commercialization capabilities, creating a complete technology and product matrix from end-side intelligence to vertical field applications in the law. We have full confidence in the founding team represented by Li Dahai and Liu Zhiyuan and believe that they will continue to lead the innovation and implementation of China's large model technology, and work together with more than a dozen innovative artificial intelligence enterprises that SAIF Partners has invested in to inject a strong driving force into the intelligent upgrading of the industry."
The Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund said: "As an old shareholder, the additional investment in Mianbi Intelligence is a further recognition of the company's technological and commercial breakthroughs shown in the past period! Mianbi Intelligence, with its full-stack capabilities and innovative achievements in the field of large models, as well as its applications in key fields such as intelligent terminals, law, and education, fully reflects the value that the development of new-quality productive forces brings to the national economy and people's livelihood. We look forward to working with Mianbi Intelligence to promote AI technology to achieve innovative breakthroughs in more fields."
Tsing Ventures said: "Mianbi Intelligence represents the most potential innovative force in the Chinese AI field. The company not only continues to make breakthroughs in core technologies but also shows a keen business perspective and excellent execution ability. From the full-process tool chain to the end-side landing, from the general large model to the vertical field application, Mianbi Intelligence is building a complete technology and product layout. We deeply agree with the company's strategic choice in the direction of AI popularization and believe that Mianbi Intelligence will set a new benchmark for China's scientific and technological innovation."
For the new round of financing, Li Dahai, the CEO of Mianbi Intelligence, said: Thank you for the trust and support of multiple investment institutions. Large models are beginning to enter a stage of real competition, shifting from a great leap forward to a protracted war. Looking back, with lower resource investment, a smaller team size, and more advanced technical cognition, we have been active at the forefront of end-side intelligence, and in the key indicators of the model, we have often been able to achieve leapfrog leadership. In this technological storm of large models that is undergoing profound changes and sweeping the world, Mianbi has taken its own unique path and maintained excellent competitiveness. In the future map of large models, Mianbi is building its own place.
Attached is the internal letter from Li Dahai, the CEO of Mianbi Intelligence:
Dear colleagues of Mianbi Intelligence,
I am very happy to share with you that Mianbi Intelligence has completed a new round of hundreds of millions of yuan in financing. This round of financing is jointly led by Loongson Venture Capital, CDH BaiFu, Zhongguancun Science City Fund, and SAIF Partners, with the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Tsing Ventures following the investment.
With this round of financing finalized, we have stood on a new level: we will further accelerate the commercial layout of efficient large models represented by end-side AI to deeply serve the industry with efficient large models of the same parameters, higher performance, lower energy consumption, and faster speed, creating tangible and perceivable value for users.
In the past year, speaking with achievements, our Xiaogangpao end-side model has become a global hit and gained a firm foothold. Based on the commercial layout and business promotion of efficient large models and end-side AI, we have made rapid progress in multiple areas.
Relying on a small-scale lean startup team, we have pushed MiniCPM to the moment of end-side ChatGPT and GPT-4V; working with benchmark partners such as Huawei, MediaTek, Lenovo, Intel, Great Wall Motors, Wutong Technology, and Yeelight Technology, we have become an indispensable role in the innovative development of industries such as AIPC, AIPhone, intelligent cockpits, and embodied robots; and we have deeply participated in the construction of the "Faxin Legal Base Large Model", a national-level artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Today, in the "6 + 2" pattern of large models in China, we have become a highly recognizable and competitive representative. Globally, Mianbi is also a benchmark for end-side intelligence and has been listed in the Fortune Global AI Innovation 50!
This is the victory of the Xiaogangpao spirit! We are worthy of pride!
The same time, more forward-looking judgments; the same resources, more explosive creations; the same opportunities, the determination to solve the pain points of the industry and customers to the end.
Maximizing efficiency to create results beyond expectations comes from our deep understanding of the essential laws of large models, based on the R & D, product, and organizational genes with efficiency as the first principle!
Taking the path one step ahead of others and fighting the battle of outnumbering the enemy with fewer, this is the resounding Xiaogangpao spirit!
Looking back on the past year, we have done several things right:
1. Forward-looking cognition, predicting the technical and product directions with smaller samples.
In the second half of 2024, the industry suddenly formed a new consensus that small models with higher knowledge density and end-side intelligence have become a new stage in the development of large models. Now, due to the profound impact of the development of end-side intelligence, mainstream consumer electronics and emerging hardware are evolving into super intelligent agents that perform specific tasks in different scenarios, becoming a new round of technological entrepreneurship tuyere. Mianbi Intelligence discovered the huge research space and application potential of end-side intelligence in the world more than half a year in advance. In this rapidly changing, highly competitive, and imaginative market, we have vigorously developed the end-side model and created the globally renowned Mianbi "Xiaogangpao" MiniCPM, and we have successfully built the basic disk.
2. Technology foundation, based on advanced technology, pragmatically serving vertical industries, and quickly replicating and magnifying value.
With high-quality data of an industry, we can quickly empower an industry to build a base large model. Mianbi leverages its technical origin and deep precipitation of professional data in the text base model. In July this year, Mianbi Intelligence, People's Court Publishing House, and Shenzhen Dibao jointly assisted the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court to officially launch the country's first large model in the vertical field of judicial trials. The application scope has covered all common civil and commercial cases and administrative cases. In November, the Faxin Legal Base Large Model, in which Mianbi Intelligence participated as a joint research and development team, was released by the Supreme People's Court. The Faxin Legal Base Large Model is positioned as a national-level legal artificial intelligence infrastructure. In the future, thousands of courts, procuratorates, and judicial system units across the country will be places where we can make contributions.
3. Achieving more with less, proposing the Mianbi Law and Density Law of large models, and surpassing similar products through the scientificization of large models.
Since the launch of the Mianbi "Xiaogangpao" MiniCPM end-side model series in February this year, the cumulative download has exceeded 3 million, topping the large model trend lists of the globally famous open source communities GitHub and HuggingFace frequently. MiniCPM not only has continuously taken the lead in many benchmark tests but also has integrated infinitely long text, ultra-clear OCR image recognition, and real-time video understanding into the end-side for the first time, creating many records. The Mianbi Xiaogangpao achieves more with less and is highly efficient and low-cost. Behind this is our insistence on the scientificization of large models, guiding technology research and development and model iteration with a more essential model knowledge density (Knowledge Density = Model Capability / Model Parameters Involved in Computation). We continuously and innovatively propose leading large model scientific methodologies such as the Mianbi Law and Density Law of large models, and are determined to bring higher-performance end-side intelligent technology to thousands of households and thousands of industries.
All leading positions, in the depth, are the leading positions of cognition; any business competition, in the final analysis, is the competition of efficiency.
Efficiency is not only the core of our enterprise operation; in the business environment, it also means faster response speed, lower cost, higher output, and better customer satisfaction.
Thank you to all the colleagues of Mianbi Intelligence. We are creating an extremely efficient large model research and development and business miracle!
Tough, tenacious, and full of energy, the Mianbi Xiaogangpao has begun to shake the world. The Xiaogangpao spirit is leading us to the ultimate victory of AGI!