Evoken, an artificial intelligence startup focused on AI-powered content creation, has completed a Series B+ financing round raising approximately $300 million (roughly 2 billion yuan), achieving a post-investment valuation exceeding $2 billion. The funding round, co-led by venture capital firms Granite Asia, Tencent, and Shunwei Capital, reflects strong investor confidence in the company’s vision to democratize professional-grade content creation through AI.
The funding round represents a significant milestone for Evoken, which was founded by Chen Mian, a former ByteDance executive who previously served as global commercialization director of Jianying, ByteDance’s video editing platform. Chen’s background in scaling consumer-facing AI products at one of China’s most successful technology companies has positioned Evoken to rapidly expand its AI content creation offerings.
Founder Background and Strategic Vision
Chen Mian’s career trajectory before founding Evoken demonstrates deep expertise in AI product development and scaling. After graduating from Southeast University, Chen held positions at several major technology companies, including Mobike, Didi, and Missfresh, before joining ByteDance. At ByteDance, Chen rose to become the global commercialization director of Jianying, overseeing the platform’s expansion and monetization.
Chen’s most notable achievement at ByteDance was becoming the company’s youngest product P-1 rank holder at age 28, a distinction that reflects exceptional product development and leadership capabilities. P-1 is ByteDance’s highest product management rank, typically reserved for executives leading major product initiatives. Chen’s achievement at such a young age positioned him among ByteDance’s most promising internal talents.
In May 2023, Chen left ByteDance to found Evoken, betting that the time was right to build an independent platform for AI-powered content creation. This timing proved prescient, as the AI content creation market has exploded in the subsequent three years, with numerous startups and established companies entering the space.
Product Portfolio and Market Position
36Kr reported that Evoken operates across three distinct but complementary product categories. LiblibAI is a community-driven platform and content marketplace featuring over 500,000 original AI models and more than 100 million professional images and videos. The platform serves as both a repository for AI-generated content and a community where creators can share models, techniques, and best practices.
Xingliu Agent, launched in July 2025, represents Evoken’s full-stack intelligent design offering. The product enables users to leverage AI agents to assist with complex design tasks, from ideation through execution. By combining human creativity with AI capabilities, Xingliu Agent aims to accelerate design workflows and make professional-grade design accessible to non-specialists.
LibTV, released in March 2026, is Evoken’s AI video creation system. The platform uses a “system-first” architecture that treats human creators and AI agents as equal collaborators rather than positioning AI as a subordinate tool. This design philosophy reflects Evoken’s conviction that the most powerful creative outcomes emerge from genuine collaboration between human creativity and AI capabilities.
The “System-First” Architecture Philosophy
LibTV’s “system-first” architecture represents a distinctive approach to AI-assisted content creation. Rather than treating AI as a tool that humans use, the system positions human creators and AI agents as partners in a collaborative creative process. This philosophy has significant implications for how the platform functions and how users interact with it.
In traditional AI content creation tools, humans typically provide high-level direction or prompts, and AI generates content based on those inputs. The human retains primary creative control, with AI serving a supportive role. In LibTV’s system-first approach, both the human and the AI system contribute ideas, refinements, and creative decisions throughout the process. This collaborative model potentially enables more sophisticated creative outcomes than either humans or AI could achieve independently.
Investor Participation and Strategic Backing
The Series B+ funding round attracted participation from several major investors with strategic significance. Tencent’s participation is particularly notable, given the company’s substantial investments in AI and content creation platforms. Tencent’s backing suggests confidence in Evoken’s technology and market position, and potentially opens opportunities for integration with Tencent’s ecosystem of platforms and services.
Granite Asia and Shunwei Capital’s co-leadership of the round indicates strong venture capital conviction in Evoken’s business model and growth prospects. Additional participants, including HT Investment and Jeneration Capital, brought the total investor base to include some of China’s most prominent venture capital firms. Existing shareholders including Gao Rong Capital, Ant Group, Yingce Capital, Mingshi Venture Capital, Source Code Capital, and Sequoia China all increased their stakes, indicating strong confidence from early investors.
Market Opportunity and Competition
The AI content creation market has expanded dramatically since Evoken’s founding. The combination of improving AI models, declining computational costs, and growing demand for digital content has created a substantial market opportunity. Companies ranging from established software providers like Adobe to specialized startups are entering the AI content creation space.
Evoken’s competitive advantages include its founder’s deep experience scaling consumer AI products, its community-driven approach to content and model sharing, and its system-first philosophy for human-AI collaboration. However, the company faces intense competition from both established technology companies with substantial resources and well-funded startups pursuing similar strategies.
Strategic Positioning in China’s AI Ecosystem
Evoken’s success also reflects broader trends in China’s AI ecosystem. Chinese companies have increasingly focused on practical, consumer-facing AI applications rather than competing primarily on frontier model development. This approach leverages China’s strengths in product development, user experience design, and rapid scaling while avoiding direct competition with US companies on large language model capability.
(Related: ByteDance Bets on Domestic Chips as Nvidia’s China Market Share Hits Zero)
Evoken’s positioning as a consumer-facing AI content creation platform exemplifies this strategy. Rather than building frontier AI models, Evoken focuses on integrating existing models into user-friendly products that solve real problems for content creators. This approach has proven successful in attracting both users and investors.
Future Prospects and Growth Trajectory
With $300 million in fresh capital and a valuation exceeding $2 billion, Evoken is well-positioned to accelerate product development, expand its user base, and potentially pursue international expansion. The company’s next priorities are likely to include improving LibTV’s capabilities, expanding LiblibAI’s content library, and enhancing Xingliu Agent’s design capabilities.
The success of Evoken will provide important signals about the viability of AI content creation as a standalone business category. If Evoken can achieve significant user adoption and demonstrate a clear path to profitability, the company could establish itself as a major player in the global AI content creation market. Conversely, if the company struggles to differentiate from competitors or fails to achieve meaningful user adoption, it could face challenges justifying its substantial valuation.