Singapore-based video-generation startup PixVerse has closed its Series C extension with a total of $439 million raised, pushing its valuation past $2 billion. The company aims to use the cash to expand its world model offering and reach customers across geographies.

The initial Series C round closed in March, led by CDH Investments, with Bloomberg reporting it around $300 million. Extension investors include Alibaba, Lollapalooza Capital, Ivy Capital, Grand Mount Capital, Eastern Bell Capital, Mirae Asset, BlueFocus, and CloudAlpha, joining returning investors iGlobe Partners and OCBC's Lion X Ventures.

Founded in 2023 by Wang Changhu (former ByteDance computer vision exec) and Jaden Xie (ex-Lighthouse Capital executive director), PixVerse offers multiple models: a V-Series video model for consumer and API use, a C-Series for professional film and commercial workflows, and an R-Series world model for game development. Users can generate videos up to 4k resolution with baked-in audio. The consumer product boasts over 150 million registered users and over 15 million monthly active users, though the company declines to say how many pay. It charges $4.80 per minute of generation for image-to-video.

Xie believes few companies are making real progress. "OpenAI exited the business when they shut down Sora 2. Other companies like Meta and Tencent are not able to create high-quality video models," he told TechCrunch. He sees equal opportunity in consumer and enterprise markets, with users creating videos for fun and enterprises using them for creative, learning, and marketing.

The startup's secret sauce? Labeling. "We think the key difference is not in data, but how you label it, because data is available everywhere," Xie said, citing his co-founder's experience building TikTok's visual understanding tech at ByteDance.

PixVerse plans to expand enterprise outreach globally, already has a deal with investor Alibaba, and will launch a new V-Series model and world model version this year. It has 150 employees across Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai, and aims to hire more researchers and go-to-market staff.

But the video market is heating up: competitors include ByteDance's Seedance, former Tencent AI head Dr. Wei Liu's Video Rebirth, Kling AI, and Western players Midjourney, Runway, and Luma. Multiple companies, including Yann LeCun's and Fei-Fei Li's startups, are building world models.