Gasgoo Munich- ModelBest has raised hundreds of millions of yuan in a new funding round, Gasgoo has learned.
Spun out of Tsinghua University's Natural Language Processing Lab in August 2022, ModelBest focuses on innovation and application for efficient large language models. Co-founder and Chief Scientist Liu Zhiyuan serves as an associate professor at Tsinghua's Department of Computer Science, while fellow co-founder and CEO Li Dahai is a former partner and CTO at Zhihu.
Image Credit: ModelBest
At the core of its technology strategy lies ModelBest's "Density Principle" — boosting model knowledge density with limited computing power. This approach has gained wide recognition as a viable path for on-device AI evolution. Building on this philosophy, the company has released the MiniCPM series of open-source models, spanning language, full-modal, multi-modal, and voice capabilities.
Official data shows cumulative downloads for the MiniCPM series have surpassed 24 million across platforms like GitHub and Hugging Face. The models are now being deployed at scale in sectors including automotive, smartphones, AI PCs, and smart homes.
In the automotive sector, ModelBest has forged deep partnerships with leading automakers like Geely, Volkswagen, Changan, and GAC. Its MiniCPM multi-modal models have been successfully integrated into vehicles such as the Changan Mazda EZ-60 and the Galaxy M9. The company has also established strong ties with top global smartphone manufacturers, with projects for more end-user scenarios currently underway.
Amid this expansion, ModelBest continues to push the boundaries of on-device AI. Its latest release, MiniCPM-o 4.5, is the industry's first full-duplex, all-modal large model. Despite a compact 9B parameter size, it enables synchronous interaction across voice, video, and text.
In the field of embodied robotics, where industry focus is often fixed on motion control and VLA models, MiniCPM-o 4.5 aims to complete the “brain” interaction puzzle. It promises robots the ability to perceive their environment in real time and make proactive decisions, significantly enhancing the naturalness of human-machine communication.
Previously, ModelBest partnered with Leju Robotics to build a humanoid robot deeply integrated with the on-device multi-modal model MiniCPM-V4.5. Thanks to an innovative architecture, the robot captures motion details at up to 10 frames per second. Even in a noisy exhibition hall, it sees, thinks, and responds in real time — accurately interpreting rapid gestures, complex menus, and mixed Chinese-English visual cues while guiding users through ordering with human-like movements.
About Seeds:
Gasgoo's "Seeds" column is designed to connect startups, ecosystem partners, investors, and local governments, empowering the entire automotive supply chain. Since its inception, the column has sought to identify standout companies, technologies, and business models driving the intelligent transformation — fostering the growth of innovation within the industry. According to Gasgoo statistics, nearly every startup featured in Seeds has successfully connected with ecosystem resources across the supply chain.
