Kuaishou's Kling AI unit completes a near $3 billion funding round (updated)
UPDATE 1-Kuaishou's Kling AI unit completes a near $3 billion funding round Adds details throughout
Oct 30 (Reuters) - Tencent-backed 0700.HK Kuaishou Technology 1024.HK said on Friday that its unit Beijing Kling has completed a fundraising round of about 19.8 billion yuan ($2.98 billion).
The short-video platform operator will hold two-thirds of the equity and 52.45% of voting rights in the Kling AI maker through its Lucky Labs holding vehicle.
The fundraise comes after a $2.8 billion raise in July, which drew investors like Alibaba 9988.HK and Tencent, when Kling was valued at $15 billion pre-money
Kuaishou did not reveal how Kling would use the proceeds
Among new investors in the latest round: A unit of Hong Kong-listed Kingdee International 0268.HK invested 300 million yuan, Gongqingcheng Junke put in 200 million yuan and a unit of Shanghai-listed MetaX 688802.SS added 100 million yuan
They partially took over other investors' commitments and received redemption rights
Kling competes with AI video generation models of OpenAI, Google GOOGL.O and TikTok owner ByteDance
Kling is planning for an IPO next year, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month citing people familiar with the matter
($1 = 6.66 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; X: @thatstanishk;))
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