Cathay Innovation Leads $10 Million Series A for Marketing Technology Startup Mogic AI
New Financing to be used for R&D to advance AI video product capabilities
Shanghai, China, August 9, 2023 — Mogic AI, an AI-powered full-stack marketing company, recently announced a $10 million Series A round led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from existing investor ZhenFund. The latest financing follows Mogic AI’s angel round with ZhenFund and Zoo Capital announced earlier this year and will be used to advance its AI video product capabilities through R&D of its algorithms and models.
Founded in 2021 by Xu Zhe (former product head at ByteDance’s Feishu or Lark) and Yang Hai (former vice president at Estée Lauder), Mogic AI is an AI-native marketing technology firm offering end-to-end solutions for enterprise clients. This includes marketing strategy insights, AI content creation, advertising distribution and digital asset management (DAM) services. Partnering with top brands such as Alibaba, Pepsi, L’Oréal, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, the company utilizes AI automation to reduce costs and increases efficiency for its customers, boosting average ROI by 10%.
With over 70% of its staff in AI or technical roles, the technology-driven company leverages Xu’s product experience at ByteDance, along with Alibaba, and Yang’s 20 years in marketing to fuel product development and commercialization. Mogic AI continues to gain traction with 2022 revenue reaching tens of millions in RMB.
Utilizing its proprietary algorithms, Mogic AI develops vertically-tailored marketing models in line with brand features and industry trends. These models continuously self-improve, optimizing the input-output ratio—a capability beyond competitors reliant on generic models or templates. Further, the ongoing advancement of AI fuels continuous evolution of its offerings. One such product, Mogic Copilot, delivers bespoke high-end AI video services to clients. In collaboration with a leading Chinese ice cream brand, Mogic AI crafted the market’s first AI-stylized commercial. They also employed text-to-video technology to produce a promotional video for a top-tier lipstick brand, utilizing prompts. As AI progresses, Mogic Copilot is poised for rapid evolution to meet an expanding array of customized user needs with intelligence and efficiency.
“Mogic AI is finally addressing critical challenges marketers such as myself have faced over the last 20 years. We’re now turning many theoretical concepts into practical solutions, not just achieving commercial success, but making meaningful contributions to the marketing and advertising industry as a whole.”
Yang Hai, Co-founder of Mogic AI, at the recent 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference
“We’ve been closely watching the rise of generative AI and see tremendous potential in its application across the marketing chain with mass efficiency gains. Thanks to Mogic AI’s commitment to innovation and adaptation to customer needs, they’ve grown from a niche concept to global recognition, attracting top-tier clients. At Cathay, with our deep expertise of the consumer and technology sectors along with a diverse and committed network of global corporations and brands, we hope to further propel Mogic AI’s growth to the next stage.”
Mingpo Cai, Founder & Chairman of Cathay Capital
About Mogic AI:
Mogic AI is China’s leading AI-native marketing technology company. Founded in 2021 by tech and marketing veterans from ByteDance and Estée Lauder, Zhe Xu and Andrew Yang, Mogic is spearheading the automation of creative content production at scale. Powered by cutting-edge algorithms and insights from Mogic’s proprietary suite of AI technologies, including the Content Insight, Content Production and Dynamic Content Management (DAM), Mogic generates high-quality content across copy, images and video tailored to each brand’s unique needs and goals. Mogic AI has successfully served over 100 top brand group companies and platforms, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, L’Oréal, Unilever, Alibaba and more. For more information, visit https://www.mogic.ai/
About Cathay Innovation:
Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital firm, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, investing in startups at the center of the digital revolution across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Its global platform unifies technology investment across continents, investors, entrepreneurs and leading corporations to accelerate startup growth with access to new markets, invaluable industry knowledge and introductions to potential partners from the start. As a multistage fund with over $2B assets under management and offices across San Francisco, New York, Paris, Berlin, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzen and Singapore, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs and startups positively impacting the world through technology. To learn more, please visit www.cathayinnovation.com.