Gasgoo Munich-Beijing ModelBest Technology Co., Ltd. has officially filed for listing guidance with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), naming CITIC Securities as its sponsor. The move follows an August 5 shareholding restructuring that formally marked the start of its A-share IPO process.
ModelBest's filing comes as the STAR Market presents an opportunity for innovation. On June 17, the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued new guidelines explicitly allowing high-quality AI large-model companies that have not yet achieved significant revenue to apply under Listing Standard 5. A key requirement is that at least one large-model product must be live and operating at scale.
Image source: ModelBest
Aside from Zhipu AI and MiniMax—which have listed in Hong Kong and aimed for the STAR Market—ModelBest has long been viewed as a prime candidate to benefit from this new rule. While the guidance filing has not specified the exact board, the policy shift has created a fresh path for technology-driven AI firms.
Founded in August 2022 and spun out of Tsinghua University's NLP lab, ModelBest positions itself as a pioneer in on-device foundation models. Its proprietary MiniCPM series, known for high efficiency, now powers automotive human-machine interaction, smart homes, AI phones, and AI PCs. To date, the series has been downloaded over 43 million times globally.
On the technology front, ModelBest has proposed a "Law of Density," mapping the exponential growth of model intelligence density. Its research team has published more than 400 papers in Nature sub-journals and top conferences like ACL, ICML, and NeurIPS, supporting a full-chain R&D system spanning Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
On the funding side, ModelBest has attracted backing from heavyweight investors including Huawei Hubble, the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, China Telecom, Shenzhen Capital Group, and Moutai Fund. Public records show the company raised over 5 billion RMB in the first half of 2026, pushing its valuation past 20 billion RMB and making it the highest-valued unicorn in the on-device intelligence sector.
With the guidance filing complete, whether ModelBest can successfully leverage the STAR Market's new rules to tap capital markets remains to be seen as the review process unfolds. Attention is now focused on the IPO process of this on-device large-model leader.
